One great adage of our time is “there aren’t enough hours in the day.” Alarms are set earlier and people stay up later. We try to shave minutes off of our routines, conserving seconds so that we can use them more effectively later on. We overload our daily plates with minor tasks and distractions so we have a hard time staying focused. It’s frustrating when we can’t get more done.

How do we use our time better?

Multitasking is definitely the flavor of the month when it comes to shortcuts. You may have a top performer at your office who seems like they’re handling a dozen things at once. Tons of job ads include it as a required skill. It’s growing from an exceptional quality to an expectation. We should be able to talk on the phone and finish an email or sort through a stack of papers. When you watch TV, you should be able to work on a project. When you’re working on a big presentation, you should be able to respond to emails. When you’re driving, you should be able to text. Right?

Wrong.

The Multitasking Myth

There is no such thing as multitasking—at least, not the way we understand it. The brain is incapable of doing multiple things at the same time. Instead, we’re task switching-shipping rapidly from one problem to the other and back again. It feels like we’re doing pretty well or that we’re even doing better than if we only tackled one thing at a time. You may feel like you’re getting more accomplished… but that simply isn’t true.

The temptation to derail your focus is overwhelming. Social media, an essential component of any successful startup, gives us the feeling of immediate gratification and quick accomplishment that we all crave. There are dozens of apps out there which send out notifications to pull you away from your projects. Having multiple balls in the air creates the illusion of productivity but actually reduces it by 40%.

The damages of this practice can be costly. Dr. Jo Ann Deak, noted psychologist and speaker, says that trying to multitask can actually make you lose your ability to think deeply and critically about anything at all.

If that sounds a little scary, it should. Reflective thought is what has allowed humanity to transcend and to build the world in which we live. Anyone who has ever become successful on their own terms has started with an idea, a vision. Losing the chance of ever having another is far too great a risk.

Instead of dividing your attention, grab your dream and zone in on that. Devora Zack recommends a “singletasking” strategy in your daily life in her book by the same name. Instead of trying to accomplish multiple tasks at one, tackle each as its own endeavor. If you divert your attention, make a choice to do so—don’t get caught up in an email that can wait until tomorrow.

Staying Focused

John Lee Dumas, the host of the highly successful entrepreneurial podcast EOFire, frequently refers to “FOCUS”—not just what you need to succeed but an acronym for his recommended strategy: Follow One Course Until Success. The idea originated in a book by Robert Kiyosaki and Donald Trump but my familiarity with it is from John’s podcast and his advice to other entrepreneurs.

EOFire didn’t make money for the first six months because he was staying focused on one thing—becoming an amazing podcaster. He avoided the well-meaning advice of others about branching into different areas and had to avoid what he calls “weapons of mass distraction”—social media, email, or your smartphone. Now, his enterprise generates over $200,000 a month. This wasn’t an accident or a miracle—it was only possible because of his dedication to ONE path.

You have a dream for your life that involves self-defined success. The only person holding you to these goals is you.

Don’t spread yourself out in too many directions. You only have one mind and it needs to make thoughtful and innovative ideas. Successful entrepreneurs understand the difficulty of working towards their goals, especially balancing them with a full-time job for guaranteed income. It can be immensely frustrating, especially in the beginning. Staying focused makes it easier to keep your priorities in order and feel accomplished at the end of a day. Trying to push yourself out into too many different spaces will leave you feeling exhausted and most of your projects only partway to completion.

Once I started speaking, there was a world of opportunity open to me. I had opportunities to speak to large audiences but I could also work with private groups or even one-on-one coaching. There were chances for webinars, advertising, affiliate marketing, podcasts, and video promotions. All of these have the potential to be great opportunities. But I had to decide what was the most important goal for me and set out the best path to achieve it. I knew that the best way for me to have an impact and help people become more successful was to finish writing my book. It had been important to me for years but I had been diverting too many resources to other endeavors. So, I scaled back my coaching and speaking. I set my S.M.A.R.T. goal and buckled down.

Writing a book is an entirely self-disciplined art. I had no choice but to motivate myself to chase that success. Instead of putting it off, I changed my focus and put as much energy as I could into drafting. It was a lot of hard work but I finished my first draft faster than I ever expected. It was the best decision I’ve ever made. Even with all that I’ve been able to accomplish so far, I consider this book my greatest accomplishment. It’s the tallest mountain I’ve climbed so far. It made me wonder why I hadn’t done it sooner.

What’s your dream? Your goal? The one thing you really want to own, that would take your life in a new direction? When you’re following your course to success, there will always be opportunities to avoid it or to delay it. Some of these may be good opportunities but prioritizing what matters most to you is essential to keeping your focus.

If you need help with defining your goal, achieving it, or staying focused, I’ve provided my Foolproof Guide to Achieving Your Goals (a $5.99 value) absolutely free. Download it now and stay focused!