Jul
3
Knowing when - and how - to focus can make a massive difference.
Filed Under Personal awareness, lessons learned
It is funny how the topic of focus always jumps into my brain when I have the chance to play golf. Yesterday I had a wonderful afternoon of golf at Archerfield, a course less than a mile from Muirfield ( one of the courses used for the British Open) in the beautiful East Lothian countryside about 20 miles from Edinburgh. The sun shone, I was in the company of fellow businesswomen and the hospitality was great.
Before we went out my fellow golfers and were discussing how we hate when there is a party due to tee off directly behind us as we are not sufficiently experienced to be able to keep ahead of them. We were assured that there was a reasonable gap between us ( as the last group from our party ) and the next group.
I had played on Tuesday too to get a bit of practice in. I got new clubs last year and have only played a few times with them. I am really keen to improve my game and had a lesson too. I was all set.
My tutor last week helped me with my grip, taught me a few things about my swing and urged me to celebrate good shots and leave the bad ones behind quickly. While practising I realised that when I got “into the zone” I was far more likely to hit the shot I meant to ( I need to practice a lot more to hit shots that will allow me to play the best game).
So we set off. All of us tee’d off successfully. The photographer did not put us off. We were smiling and happy. We were getting to know each other between shots, appreciating the flowers, trees and birds. The first hole was good. Good tee shots at the second and third. Then suddenly we were aware that the people behind us had caught up and were on the tee waiting to go when we were done.
I kid you not - we all went to pieces. Fluffed shots, the military version of golf ( left, right, left..), into bunkers, 6 puts…the lot.
We knew why it was happening. Those innocent guys behind us had become our focus instead of the game in hand.
Of course - ironically - this meant that we were playing even more slowly. Our host was urging us on - quite rightly. So we took a pragmatic approach and when one of us had too few shots left to make a reasonable go of the hole we quit.
At the half way mark everybody was forced to take a 10 minute break - except us. We ploughed on and put some space between us and the next group. Regaining our composure - and focus - and the back 9 were a whole lot more successful.
Some time ago my own coach suggested that I write a note to myself to put in a prominent place to remind me to “ignore the noise”. I was working on a project which had a load of critics and, quite frankly, they were putting me off doing my best work. The people who commissioned the work were very supportive and understood where the work I was doing fitted. What they thought and said mattered and I focussed on that.
If there is something or someone ( whether they mean to - like the critics - or just happen to be in range - like the golfers) out there distracting you from focussing on your best work find a way to ignore them!
You don’t let people play through in Scotland?
I have a priority list of allowable distractions.
People in trouble - anytime. I even answer telephone surveys IF the kid is on commission. Otherwise I just try to make them laugh.
If anyone has set up a job so it is so pressured that I am impatient with someone, I walk out!
Equally if someone is in too much of a hurry to serve me properly . . .
I think it is a helicopter view thing. To rise above a situation and figure out our priorities. Once we are dealing with the stress itself, it is so very hard.
Oh yes, Jo - we let people play through. Normally the pressure would have taken care of itself that way. But the course was busy and we were told that because it was playing slow ahead of us too ( we could see the group in front of us) we had to stay in the same order.
I have telephone preference in place so I don’t get those sales calls. Thankfully. Occasionally one slips through. I envisage the person at the other end being one of my kids just trying to earn a buck….
Hi Jackie, over here on Thai-Burma border again and there’s quite a lot of noise (apart from the torrential rain). When people live in such desperate fear and poverty, noise abounds so that’s a salutory word from you. Our joint exhibition that has just finished in Thailand and Edinburgh would never have happened had we listened to noise. It can really distract focus. Thank you. Check it all out on the blogspot again on www.forthview.blogspot.com. Love Sheila
[…] Knowing when - and how - to focus can make a massive difference. […]
Hi Jackie
You are right about “focusing and cutting out the noise”, I can honestly say that working from my kitchen table makes it really hard to focus on the task. Firstly when you work from home there seems so many other things you can do, whilst you are working. Putting the washing on, then making your first sales call, washing up, making another call, put the kettle on etc etc. I really have to remind myself that if I was in an office I wouldn’t have the hoover and I would have to “focus”.
My solution to it all, is to close the doors of the other rooms, so I can’t see the mess, put my car in the garage, so friends can’t pop over for coffee, and set the time when I am going to focus on my work and when I am going to take a break.
What relief to find that I haven’t wasted the day!
Jacqui - your comment reminds me of when I started working at home. To get round it I arranged on out of “office” meeting ( aka a coffee with a friend/former colleague/client) a day for a while. Then I realised that that plan in itself interrupted my focus and I settled into a routine. Like you I just close the door and walk away…but sometimes it can be tough when the other members of the household have taken a rather more relaxed view of what is needed on the housework front. Thank heavens I have never been houseproud to any great extent!