Focus Question: Where are you focusing on?

Description
Focus is a multi-layered word in the remote space. Focus is not only about what we are choosing to look at, what also thinking about what helps us keep our focus.
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#1 – Where are you focusing?
Just as Goleman writes focus is important on three levels – inner focus, other focus and outer focus. Where are you putting your attention? All three areas are key for work in the remote space, and it can be easy to get pulled into certain areas, for example, an inner focus.
 
#2 – Building out your focus muscle
What are you doing to focus your attention? This may be about tuning out your distractions as well as those things that are not core.
Read through Week 43 on Keeping Things Simple and Week 42 on Minimizing Distractions.

Activity
# 1- Consider where are you focusing – inner focus, outer focus or other focus? Where are you not focusing? What’s the danger or trap of not focusing there?
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#2 – What is going to help you build your muscle for focus? What will help minimize distractions?

For more on this topic check out: The Teams365 Blog at Potentials Realized.com.

Best,
Jennifer

Focus Question: What distractions are getting in your way?
 
Description
Distractions abound in today's workplace from:

• Open concept work areas where visual distractions abound
• Regular bings from email arrival, updates, Instant Messaging
• Being called into meetings which may not be necessary
• Too many open loops or projects on the go
• The blurring of work and professional roles

 
All three of these areas can be quickly assessed if you are committed to minimizing distractions for you and your team.
 
Some initial ideas to minimize distractions may include:
Creating "focused work" periods. Whether it's 30 or 60 minutes a day, focused times, which have no immediate distraction allow us to get things done. Many studies find that our immediate productivity can be boosted by giving projects time windows and a time frames. The Pomodoro technique is one example of accelerating productivity. It posits that focused activity for 25 minutes can be followed by a 5 minute break. Read more about the Pomodoro Technique from its' creator here.
 
Become ruthless with meetings. Moving the needle on meetings may be a goal for many teams today. If you have not yet downloaded a copy of my bookmark for my newest book - Effective Virtual Conversations - on making virtual meetings more effective, download it here. It includes 8 Questions you will want to ask yourself before every meeting.
An initial question to ask your self this year is "is a meeting the best way to communicate this information or is there a better way?
 
Closing email and other app windows at different parts of the day. While it may not always be possible to turn off email for extended periods, it is important to have blocks of time where we are able to focus solely on the task at hand. Providing small work areas for individual and/or groups to meet in for the important pieces of work are critical. It may take a few minutes to get into the flow of these projects, and scheduling in time on a regular basis to have focused work time, is useful in breaking the cycle of ongoing disruption.
 
Ask yourself if you need to interrupt someone before you immediately hit send on an email which could be delayed or bundled with some of the other questions you have.
 
Where does your team get distracted at present? What small, but consistent changes would make a difference to the way you are working?

Activity
Identify the distractions which exist in your world. What is important to take note of?

For more on this topic check out: Teams365 blog posts on the topic of Distractions. Check them out here. 

Best wishes,
​Jennifer

Focus Question: What is the state of boundaries in your work right now?

Description
Boundaries are a critical part of remote work. They are important for productivity as well as well-being.
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Consider the multiple layers of boundaries which can be important including:

•       Boundaries around hours of work
•       Boundaries between work and life
•       Boundaries between project roles
•       Boundaries between hat you wear – parent and other
•       Boundaries between the virtual world and in-person

What are the boundaries which are important for you to take note of?

What happens when boundaries aren’t clear?

Which boundaries need some shoring up?

​Boundaries often get clear when we explore priorities and values. What are your core priorities for the next three months and how can these help you get more discerning around what you are going to say YES to, and NO to?

Activity 
Take note of the boundaries which exist in your work right now. What needs to be clarified or strengthened? What’s the cost of too many lax boundaries?

For more on this topic check out:
PlanDoTrack sections on Delegation.
Teams365 blog posts on Boundaries including:
Teams365 #2087 – Remote Working Myth – Boundaries aren’t important. Find this at here.

Best,
Jennifer

Focus Question: What do you want to focus on today?

Description
There are many competing priorities in a business. What are the things you want to focus on today? This week?

As solopreneurs, it’s unlikely that our To-Do list will ever be complete. We can overwork ourselves to the point of burn out.

As virtual and remote professionals the issue of prioritization takes on immense significance given that we are likely to be part of multiple teams, working across different time zones, with each team and leader having different priorities. Having to work more autonomously, and independently, we also can benefit from prioritizing what’s important from the “bigger picture” of what’s on our desk at any given moment of time.
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In Coaching Business Builder and PlanDoTrack, I share four different prioritization tools which will help you identify what is going to give you more focus:
1. The Strategic Issues Mapping
2. The SWOT
3. Covey’s Urgent/Important Matrix
4. Urgency/Importance Matrix

Activity
It can be useful to adjust our lists and tasks laying them out in different ways get different perspectives. Here are several ways to slice up your current list:
Make a list of the most important tasks you have on your plate right now. Assign them a weighting in terms of a 1-10.
Then look at the original list again and distribute them according to whether it’s something you can DO, DELEGATE, DEFER or DUMP. Now renumber them again. Assign those that can be deferred to a new list or schedule them in. Dump items need to get dumped. Delegate those onwards that you can. What do you notice now?
 
If you are doing some longer-term planning, refer to the SWOT and/or Strategic Issues Mapping which you’ll find in PlanDoTrack If you are feeling overwhelmed, stuck or working on immediate priorities consider using the other prioritization tools.
 
For more on this topic check out
Pages 118 to 125 of the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner. These sections cover the topics of Time Management and Personal Productivity for the Virutal and Remote Professional.

Best wishes,
​Jennifer

Focus Question: What does renewal mean for you?

Description
The fields of sports and business shows us that teams that excel, are great at both “playing hard” and also resting hard. When working remotely, our boundaries between work and life often get blurred.

Just as physical renewal is essential after a long race, periods of renewal are key in business to help us remain at our prime. What does renewal mean for you? When is the last time you took time to renew?

Decision fatigue, social media burnout, task switching and cognitive overload, take a toll on us as professionals. When things become unbalanced it can also become luggage we bring into our family life.

As solopreneurs, keeping ourselves “at our prime” is key as the business relies on you. Without you there, it’s unlikely that it can keep going for long. Therefore, renewal should take a priority.

Here are some different ways to consider renewal:

• Taking vacation time on a regular basis
• Scheduling time away from our work (i.e. conferences, meetings with colleagues)
• Enjoying a compressed 4-day work week at different parts of the year so you can enjoy a longer weekend
• Having clear boundaries around “when you are ON” and “when you are OFF”
• Swimming/running/hiking/going to the gym over lunchtime on a regular basis
• Going on a retreat

 
What will help you renew?

Activity
 
What are the things that are going to help you renew? Build some time in to do this.
 
For more on this topic consider tracking your routines and renewal via the Daily Monthly Trackers.

All the best,
Jennifer

Focus Question: What are the tasks which you need to let go of and have others complete?

Description
Following up on last week’s focus on delegation, what do you need to say no to?
Saying no is just as powerful as saying yes.

Focus Question: What are the tasks which you need to let go of and have others complete?

Description
There’s usually never enough time to get things done in our work. One area which most professionals struggle with is delegation. This is particularly challenging when working in the remote space as we need to be even more specific and strategic in what we can delegate, to whom and what it can look like.

Delegation is successful when we are clear about the task that needs to be completed, when we ensure that the person doing has the resources and authority to get it done, and that we also follow up regularly with the task.

Throughout the last three decades of my career, in teams large and small, intact, and remote, I’ve found delegation to be a growth edge for everyone – leaders and team members alike.
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In the spirit of keeping things simple, I have had people reflect on the 5Ws and an H of delegation as they think about:

• WHAT they want to delegate?
• WHO has the skills to do it?
• WHEN can they do it? What are key milestones towards project completion? When will you get things done?
• WHERE can the person being delegated to go for information and resources?
• WHY? What’s important about this task? What does the person need to know about WHY the task needs to be completed on time, with accuracy etc. Provide context around this.
• HOW can they do it? What are some of the key steps and resources required? Are there specific decision points they need to be aware of?

Using these questions as a conversation prompter can be valuable in terms of making sure that delegation is successful for everyone.

Activity
Today I am inviting you to take stock of all the things that are on your plate. As you consider past focus areas like the 80/20 Rule, what do you notice about where you are getting your impact and results in your work? You may recall that the 80/20 Rule – also known as Pareto’s Principle - indicates that we tend to get 80% of our impact from approximately 20% of our efforts.
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Key Tasks I need to do (or delegate):
Identify one or two tasks you would consider delegating. Using the following chart, work through the associated questions:

Best wishes, 
​Jennifer

Focus Question: What’s going to amplify your productivity?
 
Description
Time is one thing we cannot manufacture more of. It’s a non-renewable resource. Once we spend it, we can’t get it back.
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Personal productivity and time management is a key issue for most remote workers, regardless if we run a business or work for someone else. In fact, it’s a primary reason why I published PlanDoTrack, which is specifically geared at supporting remote and virtual workers around productivity. The first part of the book is a workbook, helping you get focused in on you (your strengths, styles, approaches, networks) as a remote worker. The last half is dedicated to providing you with a planner – with a focus on annual, quarterly and weekly planning. My findings have been over the years that most remote workers are well covered with daily planning tools, but don’t always focus on weekly, quarterly or annual tools.

Activity

Use the following questions to reflect on what’s important for you around productivity and time management right now:
 
1. What's helping me/us get results? (Get specific around this - what key activities or practices are helping?)
 
2. What's not helping me/us to get results?
 
3. Where is the bulk of your time being spent? If you are not yet tracking some of your key metrics and schedule, now is a great time to do so. It can be as simple as noting it in your calendar, or picking up a resource like my upcoming Plan.Do.Track workbook and planner.
 
4. What are noticing about key periods that are unproductive?
 
5. Where might you be spending too much time in meetings? What influence can you have on tightening up meeting results and focus OR exploring who needs to be at meetings?
 
6. What are you doing to renew?
 
7. From a scheduling perspective, are you building in enough blocks to get tasks completed right away before you have to switch your focus?
 
8. What other changes would you like to make to your schedule, to do more of what's working, and to do less of what's not?
 
For more on this topic check out:
Section 4 of the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner for more on time management and tools.

Enjoy!
​Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Co-host of the Remote Pathways Podcast
Potentials Realized – Coaching, Training and Consulting Services for remote teams, leaders and professionals 
 
Check out the most recent Remote Pathways Podcast Episode, where we explore the people, places and processes of exceptional remote work. You can listen to the latest episode here, or on your favorite podcast player.
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