Productivity: how do you focus when you have so many ideas?

How do you create focus when you have so many ideas?

It’s common for people who want to do something great with their life to be overwhelmed by options. In fact, so overwhelmed nothing gets done.

How many ideas do you have in your head right now?

The term ‘multi-passioned’ is used to describe when you love many different things and cannot choose what to focus on. It’s fabulous having a lot of ideas that you’re passionate about but it can get you stuck choosing what to do first.

In truth, there is no real right or wrong answer but making a choice to create focus in the direction of one idea is helpful to quieten down the voice of overwhelm.

She went from 'fragmented to focused'.

I was working with one client that was ‘fragmented, fatigued and frustrated’. In fact, she told me the reason why she wanted to work with me was because, “Something had to give. I was feeling like God was pushing me to write, and lots of ideas were swirling around but other commitments along with confusion about how to proceed had paralysed me so I couldn’t move forward”

So how do you create focus when you have so many ideas?

1. Create space and time for a 'brain dump'.

Get everything out of your head and onto paper. Personally, pen and paper are the best way to do this because I can just keep scribbling ideas and draw arrows or add lists. But there are also fabulous mind-mapping software tools or organising boards (like Trello) that can be a place where you put down all your thoughts, ideas, to-do’s or desires.

There is enormous benefit to taking thoughts and making them tangible. Good decisions are hard to make when you are clouded by too many options. Your brain isn’t designed to function best storing all that knowledge, it needs space to think clearly and create focus.

2. Organise and prioritise

Start to group everything you’ve written down into categories. Home, health, business, creativity, career, spirituality, personal growth…. there are can be any number of areas where your ideas can be organised.

As you’re doing this ask yourself ‘do I need to do this NOW’? or ‘can I do this NOW’? Do some gut checks to get a sense of the priority of each idea. Put a star or make a note of those ones that jump out as critical.

Remember, you do not have the time, energy or resources to do it all at the same time – hold one idea up against the other and consider, ‘if I HAD to go with one right now which would it be?’. You may well decide to go with two in the end, but you need calm your mind by organising your thoughts.

3. Accept that not all decisions are final

Any making a decision you are not cutting off change. Life does change, sometimes you have to be able to adapt or you could have selected your idea to start with and then realised it is not what you really want.

The key is starting with a decision and taking action because it is then you will start to know if it’s right for you.

4. Set yourself a time frame or achievement level

You have greater chance of creating momentum and focus by you choosing one idea.  Set yourself a time frame or a milestone to achieve it then assess if it’s working.

Remember, a dream doesn’t cost you anything – it will always stay as an idea – until you take action and see what is possible.

There is a guide available for download, you can access it by clicking the image.

Have fun experimenting with what works for you!