Yo Work Fun Nation!

Today’s email is a reply to one of our subscribers. I saw this as a common pattern sa ating freelancers, so I’ll share my reply na din.

“CoaSH, eto biggest challenge ko. I struggle with focus. Yun siguro. Even answering this question, in-ooverthink ko pa ano ba talaga yung issue, kasi there are a lot of noises in my head. So yun, I have lots of problems, lots of things I want to solve all at the same time, feeling ko I will get left out if I don't resolve these things faster.”

First of all, thank you guys for really writing back to me and engaging sa emails ko. It means a lot and I think we’re starting to make a small dent sa productivity ng pinoy freelancers who work from home. 

So keep them coming lang. Feel na feel ko tuloy na advice columnist na ako hehe.

Timely ang question because this is a pretty common challenge in freelancing (I think more than in other fields), which is maintaining focus VS so many distractions and demands on our time.

Ganon talaga kasi we're smack right in the center of connectivity. 

It’s one of the big conundrums sa industry natin kasi yung kasalanan kung bakit nawawalan tayo ng focus is also yung reason kung bakit may income tayo.

It’s also our phones and our screens. and the whole world telling us to feel FOMO. haha ouch.

Anyway, the first thing I would suggest is to take some time to prioritize. (I wrote a few tips on how to prioritize a few emails back)

This means identifying what tasks are most important and need immediate attention, and which ones can be put on the back burner for now. 

After making sure okay yung health basics mo, and spending quality time with your family and loved ones, you need to allot actual time for other important tasks unless ma-outsource mo sila. 

Ex. cooking for family, hatid sa school, alaga kids etc. People tend to forget na these things need actual time to complete. 

Now on to the second most important. Eto na yung money-making tasks that will certainly bring you income if you keep doing it.

Prospecting is one of those, getting on discovery calls, optimizing profiles, exercising para di ka maging sakitin, attending your group accountability. 

saka na mga kdrama, or build them into your day as rewards para di ka deprived. 

tapos, having a clear goal in mind (and naka-print sa tabi ng table mo) and knowing what needs to be done to achieve it can help you stay focused. 

Cliche ito, but set specific times for certain tasks, so that you can fully concentrate on them without feeling overwhelmed by everything else that needs to be done.

Ex. if you're a mom, ideally dapat hindi nagblend yung mom duties mo sa work. 

Put dividers if you can, kung kaya pa. Mixing things up (even if that's really how our situations are these days, only leads to more overwhelm) 

I have a friend named Cy and hatid sundo nya mga small kids nya sa school. Once nahatid nya na, hyperfocused sya sa 5 hours that they're in school para pagbalik nila she can be fully present as a mom uli. 

By prioritizing and focusing on what’s most important, you can move forward faster and feel less overwhelmed by the multitude of tasks and problems you’re facing.

Remember, it’s okay not to be able to do everything at once. 

Just like when Facebook, Netflix, and TikTok trained our brains to be addicted to dopamine while using their apps, it will also take time for us to train our own brains back into a more focused state. 

Being unfocused, or being a procrastinator is not an identity or fixed state, it’s a habit lang pala. And dahil habit sya, pwede natin i-train out of our systems yan over time.

I hope this helps! More emails about focus and procrastination are in the pipeline. They're mostly for me din, largely hehe.

Happy Friday,

Shoden “Advice Columnist” San

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