Are you having trouble staying focused day after day while running your business? Every business owner and employee goes through a slump period where it’s hard to stay motivated and even sit down at their desk in the morning. No matter how much you love what you do there are days where you think, “I really don’t want to do this today!”
It has little to do with what you’re actually doing and more with the repetition. This may seem like a strange comparison, but have you ever seen “Man Vs. Food” on the Travel Channel? The host Adam Richman takes on food eating challenges and gives advice on them.
One thing he frequently talks about is dealing with texture. When you’re chewing the same food for an hour straight it gets harder with each bite because it’s the same thing on repeat. It doesn’t matter if it’s your favorite food in the world, after an hour you’re going to be a little tired of it!
Upset Your Routine
With that in mind, staying focused could just be a matter of restructuring your day. Think of how you’ve organized your business hours – you roll into the office, go over the previous day’s sales, write emails, drink coffee while reading Reddit, list new items for sale, blah blah blah every day.
Eventually having the same schedule can wear on you. It’s true some do thrive on a very strict schedule, but even those people have to admit that years of the exact same thing can drive you nuts and cause you to lose focus.
So as a simple solution try to upset the proverbial apple cart a little and see if it brings you back around. Split your day up either by tasks or “sections” like early morning, late morning, post-lunch, etc. Then shuffle things around a bit and see how it works out.
Naturally some things you won’t be able to flip around, like sending out the mail after a certain time, but try moving around a few tasks just to see if that refocuses your energy.
Environment
Another thing that could be causing your eyelids to droop when you think of going into work? An environment that’s not entirely conducive to creativity and ingenuity! Visuals play a huge part in our daily lives, and if the ones around you become a little too stagnant, you could be in trouble.
Sometimes all it takes it moving your desk to the other side of the room. It can give you a new perspective (literally) on your day, especially if you move into an area of the office/house that has a different lighting scheme. It doesn’t matter if it’s lighter or darker or has crazy shadows bouncing off the walls – as long as it’s different it makes it seem like you’re in a different place entirely.
At the very least you can try some new decorations on the wall. Maybe you thought you don’t even need decorations as you’re there to work and not have fun? That mentality might actually be working against your productivity as just altering the color of your walls can drastically change your mood and energy level. So try it out and see what happens!