5 Tips for Staying Focused and On Task When You’re Building a Business Jonathan Herrick Most entrepreneurs don’t have a shortage of good ideas. If anything, they have too many. That can be a good problem to have but not if you let shiny objects distract you from the initiatives you should be focusing on. While you don’t want to put all of your eggs in one basket, you’ll never get anywhere if you’ve got them spread out among 15 or 20 different baskets. Not to mention having too many projects brewing will be confusing to your team. So how do you stay focused on your current strategy when there are so many ideas and opportunities and so little time? Put your plan in writing. It’s easy to lose focus on your strategy if you’ve never committed it to paper. Set aside a day for a strategic planning session with your team and commit to annual goals for your business. Then break them down into quarterly goals, assign accountability to one team member for each and set key performance indicators (KPIs) that will show you if the team member is making progress toward that goal. Meet daily (or weekly) with your leadership team. Gather your leadership team in person or on a conference call or video chat at the same time every morning (or week) to talk about projects on deck. Use the meeting to discuss plans for accomplishing your goals, rather than just status updates. If you use the meeting to keep everyone aligned, you’ll be surprised at how much progress you can make toward your goals in one week. Are your leaders discovering new information that requires you to make pivot in your planning? Are they encountering roadblocks they need your help to overcome? By staying on top of anything that affects the team’s progress, you’ll build momentum. As you watch the needle move in the right direction on your KPIs, you’ll find it a lot easier to stay focused. Celebrate small victories. Don’t wait until you’ve hit big goals to give your team a high-five for moving your business forward. If, for instance, you want to close $20,000 in sales this month and you hit $10,000 the first week, show your team you’ve noticed all of their hard work. Order a cake from your favorite local bakery or pizza for a team lunch in the conference room and take a few moments to congratulate those who went above and beyond to meet the goal. The act of congratulating your team will remind you why you chose your strategy in the first place and why it’s so important to keep pushing forward. Hit the books. Schedule 15 minutes a day for reading books that keep you on task. Read books that offer techniques for staying focused. Some entrepreneurial favorites: The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown and Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen. If you find that you’re focused but your team isn’t, check out a book that will help you get everyone rowing in the right direction, such as Scaling Up by Verne Harnish or Traction by Gino Wickman. Find a support group. Finding a peer group of other entrepreneurs to keep you accountable can help you stay focused, if you find that you’re slipping. If you tend to get off track easily, let them know you need their help staying committed and accountable for your goals. Whether you create an informal meetup with your entrepreneurial buddies or qualify for an application-only group like Entrepreneurs’ Organization or YPO, having to answer to your peers will make you more motivated to stay on track. Push reset. When you’re working hard towards a big goal, it’s easy to get caught up in overwork. That can lead to burnout and distraction. Make sure you’re putting time on your calendar every day for activities outside of work—dinner with friends or family, workouts, a hobby, whatever relaxes you and takes your mind off of business. By showing up at your desk every day refreshed, you’ll be able to stay a lot more focused than if you’ve been living on Red Bull and no sleep for the last 30 days. Build Your Marketing Stack Build Your Stack