Focus by decision

The problem: There is too much to be done or too much information to be processed.
Information overflow is a very present problem and it often comes bundled with the need of more efficiency and more stress. More has to be achieved with less effort and less resources.

The reason: Your scope is too big.
You are working on a too big area or on to many areas. The reason for too much activity on too many fields can be unsureness, forecast uncertainty or an uncompleted analysis phase.

The solution: Make decisions.
Prioritize by selecting a few of your possible goals or the areas that are most interesting or seem most important to you. If you have difficulties in finding decisions keep in mind that a decision does not mean that you never can turn back and go another way. But on the other hand decisions should not be revised every day. To avoid frequent change of decisions and priorities do invest time in a good preparation that allows to make a good decision:

1. Analyze the situation.
2. Extract problem zones.
3. Set priorities.
4. Collect information to get an overview.
5. Evaluate possible solutions, side effects and risks.
6. Let sink in the information.
7. Collect more detailed information where necessary.
8. Calculate effort and costs.
9. Make a decision.

A good prepared decision will be a good decision in long term view and will not be influenced during your all-day-work. This is important because if you are unsure in what you are doing your focus will get easily lost and distractions are welcome to rescue you from your dilemma.

Related posts: Focus by direction, Principles over rules, Direction over goals, Razor sharp focus, Analysis and therapy, New year decisions, Considerations on decisions, Team meeting with yourself.