4 Simple Steps To Defeat Busy-Ness and Gain Clarity

I have a riddle for you. What do an entrepreneur, an athlete, a president, and a couch potato all have in common?

Give up?

They all get 24 hours each day, no more, no less.

OK, so I’m not great at riddles. But I am great at helping entrepreneurs who struggle against the idea of not having enough time. The idea that there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to do it all.

The funny thing about struggling against time, though, is that every single one of us all have the same amount of time. But not all of us understand how to gain clarity so we can use the time we have in the best ways possible. In the ways that grow our businesses and take us from struggling and stressed out to successful.

I’m going to show you in this article how to take control of your time and finally achieve your objectives without burning out.

How to Gain Clarity and Focus

Lack of time is a myth. You’ll never find more time because more time does not exist. You, me, your favourite athlete, and that couch potato all have 24 hours in a day. So why does it feel like that successful entrepreneur found the secret to adding an extra few hours to their day?

Clarity and focus.

If you’re constantly sweating as you run from one task or idea to the next, then you lack focus. When you lack focus, you lack the clarity to know what you’re trying to accomplish next.

You’ve probably heard me say this before: Focus on the output, not the input.

Lack of clarity means you’re taking a lot of unnecessary action (input) because you don’t know what you’re trying to accomplish (output). So you’re doing a lot every day, but you’re not really getting anything done.

That’s like driving without knowing your destination. Or without having a destination at all. If you don’t know where you’re going, any and all roads will get you to a destination. But chances are slim that where you find yourself is where you want to be.

So if you’re an entrepreneur who is ready to gain clarity and focus, here’s how.

Step 1: Know what you want to accomplish

The reason why so many entrepreneurs struggle here is they want to accomplish a great many things. And that’s fine. You don’t have to choose just one thing to accomplish for your entire business.

But you do have to choose one thing to accomplish next.

When deciding what that one next thing is, think through what will provide you with the best results. What will free up more of your time? What will provide you with more resources and leverage to help you with your next conquest?

This first step is really a domino effect. You need to have the focus to know what one step now will help set you up for the next thing.

Step 2: List all the necessary steps

Now you know what you want to conquer as your next step. Let’s say you are launching a digital product and your next step is outsourcing the messaging. Your goal now would be to list out all the steps needed to accomplish this.

You need to find a supplier. Start an ad campaign. Create the branding. Whatever the steps are for your messaging, list them all out.

Why does this help with clarity? It first helps you visualise the specifics. You might feel tempted to go back to your aimless driving days of going from task to task with no goal in mind. When you see these steps listed out, you know what you absolutely need to do and what you can ignore for now.

Another great thing about finding clarity with this is that as you see your steps written out, you might find you need to break down your next step into even smaller goals. Then start again with listing out your steps.

And with one easy action, you’ve now pointed yourself in a specific direction leading to clarity.

Step 3: Order the steps like a domino

As you stare at your list of necessary steps, you know they’ll help you achieve your goal. But before that can happen, you need to order them.

There’s the step that needs to come first because everything else builds upon it. And then there’s that step that needs to head further down the list since you need someone else’s input before you can complete it.

Focusing on ordering these steps will save you hours in the long run so you aren’t wasting time wondering what needs to happen next. Or worse, working on something that ends up in the bin because it no longer makes sense with steps that should’ve come first.

Step 4: Add your steps to a timeline

One after the other, add these steps to a timeline. This helps with focus immensely as you now have a goal of how long each step should take you.

If you want to go even further with focus, then delegate. Assign the responsibility of steps to others. Then all you do is focus on the first step, the one right in front of you.

It might feel as if creating a timeline is an extra, unnecessary step. If you have each task in order of what you need to do, why bother with a timeline? Great question.

Again, everything comes back to focus.

If you’re driving to a specific destination and know you need to make a few stops along the way, what would happen if you lost track of time at each stop? You’d probably arrive at your destination much later than you wanted to.

It’s the same with achieving your goals. The reason so many entrepreneurs complain that they don’t have enough time is because they haven’t prioritised a timeline. Don’t make that mistake. Don’t convince yourself that timelines aren’t needed.

When you conquer that goal faster than you thought possible, you’ll thank yourself.

What to Do Next

That’s it! Take one step at a time until you reach that goal. Then rinse and repeat for the next goal. Each time you set a new goal, go through these steps.

You’re going to gain so much clarity from this practise. You’ll know what to focus on and begin using your time much more effectively because you’ll start with the end in mind.

Sure, some shots will land the mark if you try and do anything and everything. But when you start with the output and work backwards, you’ll start understanding what the most efficient way is to reach that destination.

No more guessing, no more racing around trying to accomplish random tasks.

And most importantly, no more believing the myth that you don’t have enough time to get it all done.

If you need some help with taking action on getting clarity, I have resources for you.