A Magnifying Glass Business Analogy
Less than seven weeks until summer vacation for our kids. For college kids less than a month remains.
As a kid there was no better time than summer break – sleeping in, hanging with friends and summer camp. At camp we'd cook over a fire, not shower for days, make life long friends and try cool experiments. One of those experiments involved a magnifying glass.
What did you try with a magnifying glass?
Starting a fire?
Burning your name into a piece of wood?
Burning ants?
What ever experiment you tried one thing was certain – to be successful you had to be patient and keep the magnifying glass focused on one single thing for an extended period of time.
You couldn't flit the magnifying from place to place and expect success. You had to wait for the sun to come at just the right angle through that glass and then have the heat intensify on the object below before success.
Well, I've been reminded of that singluar focus today as I flit from one project to another. It is now after lunch time and I haven't finished a single thing on my list for today.
I took a few calls.
Returned some emails.
Read an article on last night's Project Runway winner.
Reheated my coffee.
Researched a product line that I have to write about for a website project.
Tweeted a little.
Where is that magnifying glass focus?
Okay. So for the rest of the day I am going to be that magnifying glass and just focus on one thing until it is done and then I'll move on to the next.
MInd tools has an article on personal goals and how to be focused.
Even better – here's an article on Focus versus Multitasking!
Of course if you spend too much time reading the articles on focus and not enough focus on the tasks – you'll be like me.
So stop! Pick a task. Clear your desk. Turn off all the stuff in your office and makes noise.
FOCUS. Use that magnifying glass to put a fire under your task list!