Focus is what successful entrepreneurs use to maximize their business growth while maintaining their work-life balance. Most solopreneurs are able to focus to a certain degree but start to lose focus as their business grows around them. Overcoming three distinct blocks can help solopreneurs who may be spinning their wheels increase their focus and take their business to the next level.

There are three major blocks that prevent solopreneurs from taking their business from where it stands now to a level that will give you them the success and peace of mind they went into business to achieve.

When Doing Too Much is Not Enough

If you’re a solopreneur, then by definition, you’ve gotten to where you are by doing things yourself. It’s your talent at your particular business that has allowed you to succeed to this point. But as your business grew, you no doubt found yourself spending most of your time on activities unrelated to the core of your business.

Imagine if you could spend the bulk of your time on your Power Skills ™  -  the things you love doing that utilize your greatest strengths. The 80/20 rule states that 20% of your business activities bring you 80% of your results. Ideally, you’d like to spend 80% of your time directly achieving results for your business.

Look at your to-do list and categorize each task as either something that is your Power Skills™ , something that is a side effect of your success -administration or something that helps grow your business – marketing. As you go through your list, you’ll probably find that more than half of the items fall into the last two categories.  These tasks that  take up valuable time and aren’t related to your  Power Skills ™ should be eliminated or outsourced.

Stay in Rhythm

Everyone has their own unique rhythms – times of day when they work best, times when they like to exercise, times when they need to relax. If your business forces you to work counter to your natural rhythms, it can be a drain on your productivity, not to mention your mood.

The first step toward working within your natural rhythms is to make a list. Are you a morning person? Do you need time after lunch to mellow out before you get back to work? Writing everything down will give you a thorough understanding of how your internal clock works and how it effects your work habits.

Now it’s time to rework your daily schedule to coincide with your rhythms. Don’t be afraid to change your routine, even to the point of asking clients if they mind a change in meeting time, for the sake of your rhythms. You’ll be rewarded by increased productivity and a brighter outlook.

Personalize your Workweek

Your workweek doesn’t have to be all work. In fact, for most people, it’s impossible to prevent some personal and family activities from encroaching on their workweek. So why not schedule these activities so they don’t constantly compete with your business?

If you have family obligations that are continuously pushed aside in favor of those of your business, add these activities to your calendar so that your business activities don’t step on them again.  You’ll eventually realize that creating a time for family obligations actually helps focus the rest of your day and week.

If you exercise on a regular basis, plug those times into your calendar, keeping in mind your natural rhythms.

The combination of delegating your non-core tasks, scheduling your business around your rhythms and integrating personal and family time into your workweek will enable your to focus more firmly upon your Power Skills™. At the same time, you’ll be able to approach each day in a more organized manner and with more energy to produce the results you want.

Copyright 2010, Michele Hanson-O’Reggio. All Rights Reserved.

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