F.O.C.U.S. may well be the new sexy – but this view definitely is not!  (No, your eyes are not playing tricks on you; do not attempt to adjust your screen.) To have success you need clarity and focus. To assist you on your grand journey, a new article on (specific areas of) focus will be brought to you over the next three weeks.  My overall message is that if you follow the F.O.C.U.S. Method you will be well on your way to jump-starting your day, which in my experience, leads to a productive day overall. There is something to be said for getting an early, positive start to your day.

To kick things off, consider your typical workday. We all start off with good intentions, but life has shown us, that’s not necessarily how things pan out. Therefore, the best defense is a strong offense. As I write this, I am in pre-launch mode and I have a lot of deliverables to prepare before the big day and I knew I would be much better off putting everything on my calendar to lessen the chance of something falling through the cracks. Even though I am a die-hard night owl, I find that when I schedule my focus time early in the a.m. I really do get a lot more accomplished and I am floating for the rest of the day. Keep reading and try these tips on for size.

Funnel your energy into blocks of time that lead to success for work, that big project, your next brainchild – whatever the case may be.  No matter what, you don’t want energy that bounces from one thing to the next. Be targeted in your execution.

Optimize outcomes through goal setting and active engagement.  Did you ever set a goal but later realized you had done nothing with it?  In other words, your goal may not have truly been set if you weren’t even motivated to get started. Goals must be accompanied by massive action, every day.

Choose an early morning task completion; you will feel productive the whole day.  You may even just want to follow a daily read on something you are passionate about.  Give yourself an easy win first thing in the a.m. Now your motor is off and running.

Utilize the first two-four hours for the most important tasks before unplanned interruptions occur.  (And they always will.) When interruptions occur, unless you have the power to say “no” or to ignore the interruption, you will not feel good about your important task being derailed. If it’s not in your calendar, then it’s okay to say “no” or “later” and to do so guilt-free.

Schedule this time block in your calendar – what does the first part of the day look like?  How did the day end up?  Will it overflow to the next day?  Once you’ve used this time-blocking for a period of time, you will begin to gain a sense of how much time to allow for specific tasks/types of tasks. And, I’m sure you will also learn that you need to schedule gaps in between activities – do not schedule back-to-back as that is a direct line to stress and lack of progress.

I also invite you to check out the companion Morning Moxie video, the same title, as well as many other motivational videos. Please be sure to visit my YouTube Channel and check out the Morning Moxie with Larisa playlist.