How to overcome shiny object syndrome in your business (a.k.a I want to do everything)

Have you ever had difficulty focusing on one task at a time?  You know the feeling, you sit at your laptop to send an email to your community, but you remember that you need to draft a presentation for a workshop you’re delivering.  You also realise that you need to write a blog post.  At the same time, you’re listening to a podcast and you learn about a different marketing strategy and you decide that you want to become a speaker so you start researching how you can do that.🤪

The problem is unless you can clone yourself, there is no way that you will be able to do every single thing on your to-do list at the same time.  You can tick them off consecutively, but you cannot do them all at once.  Even though we know that, why do we still try to do it?

• You’re always busy but your to-do list doesn’t get any smaller

• You feel tired, but you don’t really have anything to show for your work

• You get easily distracted by other tasks that you need to carry out in your business, at the risk of not completing the task that you’re currently working on 

So now you know the signs, here are 4 things that you can do to overcome shiny object syndrome:

There are two elements to this.  The first part is being real with yourself and accepting that you suffer from shiny object syndrome.  Once you know this you can move on to one of the next steps, which is to plan your time.  We’ll come on to that in a bit.

The next part of being realistic is asking yourself how likely it is you’ll be able to carry out all of the tasks on your to-do list.  I truly believe that every single goal is achievable if you have the right elements.  One of those elements is to ask yourself whether the time period you’ve set for achieving your goal is realistic.  Because there’s nothing wrong with wanting to achieve more in your business, but what you have to ask yourself is whether you can achieve everything that you want within the timeframe that you’ve set.  

I realised that what I was doing in my business was trying to do everything at once, which was impossible. The impact of this was that I was restless and I’d have multiple incomplete tasks, which would make me feel frustrated and leave me no further forward in my business. Things changed when I looked at my to-do list and became more realistic about what tasks I could actually complete. 

Ask yourself what you are trying to achieve?  Where is that you ultimately want to be?  Knowing this will help you to create a clear plan of action.  And having a clear plan will help you to keep track of the tasks that you need to complete.  Without a plan, you have no clear direction about where you’re going in your business, or what steps you’ll need to take to achieve your goal.  Your plan provides you with direction. Which is something you’ll need if you get easily distracted.  Your plan and your objective will help to redirect you to the core of what you’re trying to achieve and will help to bring you back if you start to stray from your objective.   

Once your objective is clear and you have a plan, ask yourself out of the task that you are currently doing and the task that you want to carry out (the one that’s distracting you), which one will take you closer towards achieving your goal.  

Whenever I suffer from shiny object syndrome (and I do) I go back to my plan and remind myself of what my focus is.

Always go back to your plan. 

When I need to remind myself of the things that I need to do, I go back to my plan and look at the next thing on my to-do list.  

When I’m planning my day I put time estimates around the activities that I’m carrying out.  So if I have 5 hours in the day I break down how I’m going to spend those 5 hours and which tasks I’ll complete within this timeframe.

I then set a timer to help me to stay focused.  Here’s how I do it. 

Say for example I’m planning my content for the week on social media.  I’ll estimate how long I think that activity will take me.  Let’s say it’s 4 hours.  I’ll then set a timer for 4 hours and during that 4 hour time limit I’ll spend it only on that one activity and block out any other distractions.  I won’t go on social media, I’ll only have the TV on in the background (I always choose something that I don’t want to watch or that I’ve already watched so that I won’t be tempted to spend that time watching TV).

Part of planning your time also includes asking yourself under what category does your goal fall under.  Is it a client generating activity? A visibility activity?  A collaborative opportunity or a learning opportunity?  Let’s say that your focus is on client generating activities.  The next step is to ask yourself how the activity that is distracting you aligns with this focus.  If it isn’t aligned then you know that it isn’t something that you need to focus on.  If it is aligned then you have a decision to make.  Do you want this new activity to replace the one that you are currently working on?  Can it be slotted into your plan to be done at a later date?  

Remember as the owner, it is for you to decide what activities you spend your time on in your business.   There is nothing wrong with adapting your plan to fit in with the direction that you now want to go in.  But, be careful to ensure that you’re not always flitting from one thing to the other without completing anything.  

One of the things that I have in my business is accountability.  I have a few business buddies and we hold each other accountable for the work that we need to carry out. 

There is something about telling other people your goals that makes you want to work even harder to achieve them.  No one wants to be known as that person who always sets goals for themselves that they never achieve.  Having accountability keeps you on track and helps you to stay focused.  

Keep a notebook where you can record any ideas that you have.  So rather than stopping what you’re doing to work on something new, make a note of it so that you can come back to it another time.

Then, if you’re like me and you work in quarters, (3 monthly periods) you can review your notes so that when you come to creating your plan for the next quarter you can create some goals and action steps around the ideas you’ve recorded.

I hope you found these tips useful.

Before you go

I have a question for you. Are you focusing on the right activities in your business?  Does your plan match where you want to go in your business?  If not then you’ll love my FREE 5 day video series where I share tips and strategies to help you to set your business up for success.  Register here