One of the hallmarks of very effective and successful people is their ability to be disciplined and focus. Without focus, you will spend your time doing the wrong things, always running out of time, and struggling to complete even the simplest tasks. With the right focus you will be clear about what you want to achieve, and what it takes to achieve it, and you will spend every day doing things that actually take you closer to your most important life goals.

Being focused requires a deliberate effort in learning and applying the following to your life:

• Managing Time: This will involve firstly having a clear purpose in your life – setting goals that you want to achieve in the short, medium and long term and then identifying the set of continuous activities (the law of 5s) that you can incorporate into your daily agenda that will take you closer to these goals. You should also apply the discipline of using to-do lists each day – a prioritized list of all the things you want to do that guides your day from the start to finish.
• Managing Priorities: You can use the prioritization matrix to evaluate all of your activities for their urgency and importance and then decide which activities to do right away, delegate, schedule for a specific period or eliminate altogether.
• Managing Energy: Managing time is not enough because time is limited and finite. Effective people also pay attention to managing energy across the four domains of physical, mental, spiritual and emotional energy.
• Disciplined Execution: Effective people understand and apply the discipline of project management – identifying and allocating resources, people and time in a methodical manner to a specific task; and change management – building awareness, desire, knowledge ability and reinforcement in the people they lead to ensure that innovations and projects achieve their desired change.

I have found that focused people achieve their goals – it may take a little longer than they planned, cost a little more or consume more energy and resources that they anticipated, but with focus and discipline, and the skills for managing, time, energy, priorities and execution, you can significantly improve your success at reaching and exceeding the goals you set for yourself and your organization.