How often do you give in to distractions? If you’re like most network marketers, the number may be higher than you’d like to admit. Instead of feeding your focus, it’s all too tempting to give in to distractions.

It happens to all of us, so don’t feel bad. We start the day ready to focus and tackle any challenge in our businesses. We sit in our usual spot with our laptops or tablets in front of us, ready to start our Power Hours, and then the distractions start competing for our attention…

Perhaps it’s an email that demands our attention right this instant or your youngest child has a question about their school work. Then, you notice the laundry is piling up so you think you can just pop a load in – it’ll only take a second, right? Oh, and you should get the chicken out to defrost in the refrigerator so it’ll be ready for dinner tonight. Then the phone rings and you have to answer it….  This list goes on and on. Wait, what were you working on again? In order to eliminate distractions, you have to starve them of attention and instead feed your focus. 

What distracts you?

Although network marketing typically requires focusing on your business for an hour or less a day (if you’re using Teamzy), that hour can shift throughout the day when distractions succeed in hijacking our attention. 

Often, it’s the same distractions that demand our attention every day. And each day, we give in to them. We put our businesses on the back burner and justifying it by saying “Oh, I’ll get to it later.” However, sometimes ‘later’ becomes the next day… and then the next day. 

Success is contingent upon working consistently in your business. For the most successful network marketers, consistent means working on it daily, or at least every other day. When you feed your focus, you focus your attention on the tasks that matter, like your Power Hour. The Power Hour allows you to check into your business and check in with your network. Now, for most network marketers, these check-ins take less than an hour. Once you’ve messaged your people and made their days, you’re done. However, for most network marketers, taking the time to complete the Power Hour is the biggest challenge of the day because it’s so easy to give in to distractions.

Feed your focus

Your attention provides nourishment for both distraction and focus. What receives your attention will determine your success. If you want your business to thrive, you have to make it a priority. It may not be your top priority, but it should be near the top of the list. Instead of giving into distractions, learn to feed your focus for the sake of your success.

Energy follows focus

5 ways to feed your focus

• Prioritize

You got into network marketing to be your own boss and earn more money. In order to make this a reality, you have to make your business a priority. Of course you have other priorities in life and we’re not saying to ignore them. However, if you want to achieve your goals and lead a thriving network marketing business, the Power Hour must be a daily priority. 

While you’re prioritizing, don’t stop with your business. Also include other priorities in your day as well. Sure, your business isn’t the only priority that becomes a victim of distractions. Each day, when you’re writing your to-do list, circle or put a star next to the top two or three priority tasks on your list. Once those are complete, work on the next highest priorities. When you go through your list each day in this way, you can ensure that all of your priorities are attended to and you don’t succumb to distractions. 

• Create routine

The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine. Your routine consists of the habits you do unconsciously each day, from getting dressed to getting your children ready for school. Successful network marketers make their business Power Hours part of their daily routines. 

Creating any type of routine is challenging at first. It takes determination and motivation to remember to do the activities you want to make part of your daily routine. However, after a few weeks of doing it, you’ll find that it’s much easier to make them part of your day. Before long, you’ll wonder why it took you so long to make it part of your daily routine in the first place! 

• Set ambitious, yet achievable goals

Goals keep you motivated to stay on track. They give you something to aim for as you journey toward success. Part of feeding your focus is focusing attention on your goals.

One mistake that many network marketers make is not setting goals. Sure, they may have a vague idea of how many sales they want to make or how much money to earn. However, they haven’t sat for a moment to figure out how to make it happen; they haven’t created a plan. 

It’s during the planning process that network marketers outline the work involved in making their goals a reality. What do you need to do to achieve that target number of sales and beat your earnings from previous years? It all starts with doing a Power Hour every day. But first, you have to set goals so that you know what you’re targeting and then you have to make your business a priority.

• Reconnect with your Why

When all else fails, tap into your Why. Many people operate from an emotional perspective. We may know – logically – that we have to work on our businesses in order to succeed. But, no matter how much we try to resist, it’s so easy to become distracted. Why? Because we can rationalize our actions. We put off our Power Hours and tell ourselves that we can do it later or we’ll call twice as many people tomorrow. Then later comes around and we still put off working on our businesses. 

That’s when you have to bring out the big guns – your Why. Your Why is your reason for doing things, in this instance, your reason for starting a network marketing business and wanting to achieve success. This is often a very personal reason, which appeals to your emotions, such as your family or a lifelong goal.

When procrastination begins to rear its ugly head, think about your Why. In fact, keep a reminder of your Why near the laptop or tablet you work from or in the space in your house that you tend to work in. Then, make a point to look at this reminder regularly, especially on days when you’re tempted to give in to distractions. 

• Keep your energy high

One of the reasons we tend to give in to distractions is that our energy is low. This is more than just feeling tired, although that can be part of it. It may be that you just don’t have the energy to face working on your business that day. Maybe a lot is going on in your life that has zapped your energy resources. Or, maybe you feel stuck in the negativity around you and it’s begun to have an impact on your overall energy. It’s important to figure out what it is so you can address it and continue your journey to success. Here are some tips:

• Take breaks. Throughout your day, put yourself in a timeout. Take some time to breathe and center yourself. To get your energy flowing again, do a few jumping jacks or take a walk. 
• Split up your Power Hour. Some days taking a full hour to work on your business seems impossible. Instead of taking a whole hour at once, divide your Power Hour up into two or more smaller blocks. You can divide it into 2 30-minute blocks, 4 15-minute blocks, etc. This makes it easier to do the Power Hour every day no matter what.
• Keep it positive. If it feels you’re surrounded by negativity, counteract it with positivity. 
  • Surround yourself with positive people. Connect with the most positive people in your life and on your team. Emulate their attitude and ask them how they stay positive.
  • Read positive and inspirational books and news articles; seek out positive material online; listen to positive music and podcasts, etc. Filling your mind with positivity will drive out the energy-zapping negative stuff.

Teamzy was designed to help you stay focused

Finding your focus is hard when you have to figure out who to message first and what to say to them. Luckily, Teamzy has your back. Its unique algorithm uses the information you put in to give you a list of people to message each day. If you’re not sure what to say, Teamzy has scripts to get the conversation started, whether you use them verbatim or as inspiration for your own message to a loyal business advocate. You can also track your goals, work on professional development with helpful videos, and more. Click here to learn more about what Teamzy can do for your business.