There must be some reason why some ecommerce entrepreneurs outperform others.
Said in another way… “If two equally skilled ecommerce entrepreneurs compete, why does one get to go home a winner and the other a loser?”
The answer is simple.
One word, 5 characters.
Focus.
Something that the majority of people find challenging in growing their ecommerce biz is to know WHAT to focus on and knowing HOW to stay focussed.
We’ll focus on the HOW today and i’ll explain the WHAT tomorrow.
Maybe you’re familiar with this…
Starting a new project, a new task and suddenly you‘re stuck in mind wandering.
It’s when your attention switches from a current task to unrelated thoughts and feelings. Basically it’s thinking about something other than what you should.
The result?
Nothing gets done or a task takes double or the triple amount of time as it should.
An effective way to speed up your results starts by understanding how your brain works. It’s of vital importance here.
About 46.9 percent of our waking hours we’re thinking about something other than what we should be doing. We’re thinking about what happened in the past, what could happen in the future, or may never happen at all. Mind wandering is our brain’s default mode, no matter what we’re doing.
But a wandering mind is also an unhappy mind.
Zoning out makes you unhappy.
Your brain loves focus.
Focus means being IN the zone. It’s a mental state of operation in which a person is performing an activity. Fully immersed, involved, energized and enjoying the process of the activity.
When you’re focussed, you forget space and time.
Here’s what to do: Three simple steps to stay more focussed.
#1 Prepare your brain
When choosing a task, take a couple of minutes to prepare yourself.
Just answer these simple questions.
What are you going to accomplish? What’s the outcome, the result?
Write out why it is important and how will you know when it’s complete?
Bonus: Prepare for the shit that comes up when you’re working on a task. Just write out all the distractions before you get started.
#2 Use Parkinson’s Law
Parkinson’s Law is usually expressed as “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” If something must be done next week, it’ll be done next week. If something must be done tomorrow, it’ll be done tomorrow.
We often plan based on how much time we have.
Do the opposite.
Decide on how long a task is going to take.
#3 Choose your mental state
We’re always chasing certain feelings whether we’re aware of it or not. Choose the right mental state that works best for you to stay focussed on a task.
How do you want to feel?
Confident, energized, guided, joy, bold?
You decide.
Feel free to come up with your own words that more accurately describe how you want to feel.
To work with optimal focus, stick to ONE task until it’s completely finished. If you’re working on three or five or ten tasks a day, you’re ineffective and your success rates go down rapidly.
Tomorrow we’ll talk about how to define your needle movers.
The WHAT to focus on and how to choose your tasks with the highest value to grow your e-commerce biz.