Find focus with a simple ritual.Try making your favorite morning activity—sipping tea, walking around the block—a mind-clearing pre-work ritual. Devoting a few minutes to relaxing and centering can help erase and even prevent mental frazzle, according to
Paul Silverman, an executive coach for Fortune 500 companies, who draws on his training in Zen Buddhism to teach clients how to develop single-minded attention: “The purpose is to deepen your breath, make you energized, and help you come into the moment, fully focused and concentrated—a skill many exceptional people have.”
Establish a clear mission statement and assign incremental project goals to keep everyone on track.
People who devote time to focusing on project plans before the project even starts, according to Silverman, are far less likely to find themselves lost in the weeds, wondering how to proceed—and procrastinating. “Take as much time as you need working with colleagues to get consensus and define, down to one crystal-clear line, what you are trying to accomplish,” he says. Pre-determining measurable benchmarks also helps everyone stay focused on the parts of a project they’re responsible for. Finally, with a clear mission