From time to time, I get overwhelmed with all that I’ve got going on. I need to have things in perspective to function at my best. Writing in my journal helps me to pull things out of my brain and place them where I can review them. It’s like pushing something very close away so that it comes into focus again. When I think about it, it reminds me of Dumbledore emptying his brain of thoughts as he searched and reviewed.

I’m grateful that I know the benefit of keeping a journal. It helps me to keep my thoughts to a quiet, manageable roar. And this helps me to move forward, even after I stall for a bit.

I’m cherishing. Writing my experiences is a review. It lets me reflect, and that often feels like a cherishing experience. Even the bad times have a measure of good that is amplified by reviewing them. I get to look at them closely and can see the positive that came out of them, although they may have made me feel like total crap at the time they occurred.

I’m fueled by seeing all the good that comes from the good things in my life. And I’m propelled forward when I see the benefit of the hard times and the mistakes I’ve made. It’s not to say I won’t make those mistakes again, but that I will make a calculated decision to try it again, likely in a different setting.

I’m appreciative of the opportunities that are present around every corner. When I take advantage of anything, I draw on my life experiences to be the best that I can at it. As can be said of us all, I am the sum total of my life experiences including the people I’ve known. The good and the not so good shape me into the person I am, and inform the choices I make. And I continue…

These are all parts of gratitude that keep me moving forward. When things are good, when things are bad, I have learned there is truth and reason in the practice of counting your blessings, naming them one by one. If you don’t know the power in it, I suggest you try it and see if it doesn’t catapult you up out of your doldrums and into powerful forward motion.

Try gratitude to shake of a tough day, and to appreciate a great one. Write about it in your journal, or blog about it and share!

Not long ago, I was trying to determine what to do next with my blog. I wanted to improve it. I decided to start with my categories, subcategories and tags lists since they were all over the place. The critical one was the categories list. It grew so fast to say that my blog was growing slowly.  And, while I was having fun, my blog was supposed to serve a purpose. It needed some direction, focus, and I thought a makeover of my lists might add the structure I sought.

Whether or not your blog has a specific purpose, you will find that this organization will do a lot for you and your readers. After all, structure clears up the focus and that can be liberating. So, I got busy freeing myself.

Setting up Your Blog Outline

The goal: develop lists that enhance the purpose of the blog. I went through categories first, deleting, revising and even adding a couple. When I was done, I had gone from 27 to 11 categories, and no subcategories for now. I’m not forcing myself to keep only these categories forever. I’ll just be growing my list more deliberately rather than haphazardly. Figure out what works for your blog. Here’s what I work with:

• Categories should include big topics related to your blog’s purpose
• Each category should be able to have multiple posts
• If you can’t see more than one post for a topic, you may want to consider demoting that topic to a tag
• Add new categories carefully: consider how adding each topic will impact your readers’ navigation
• Subcategories are the next smaller heading in the outline, falling between categories and tags.
• Tags are the most specific label of each blog. Where you may have easily 1 category and subcategory for each post, you can have several tags

If I wanted to write a post about a specific writing genre, I might make it a subcategory of writing, and tag it depending on the details of the post.
So, following the pattern “Category=>subcategory—>tags”,
“Poetry=>learning—>resources, classes, programs, mentors” could be a list.

Why Clear Categories, Subcategories and Tags Help

• Carefully organizing the blog structure and outline forces you to get clear on your purpose
• Being clear on your blog’s purpose can actually help you to focus and generate new post ideas
• A clearer outline is helpful for visitors to know what they can expect to find on your blog
• Easily searchable blogs improve the likelihood that readers will return
• Categories, subcategories and tags make an efficient way to search your blog
• Because tags are used in various categories, they offer a degree of cross-referencing

Updating was Easy

I spent the bulk of time on this project in planning. Deciding what would be useful categories and tags, and to delete the subcategories. Then, deciding what rule I would follow. Right now, I use one category per post and posts can have multiple tags.

The WordPress quick edit feature saved me through editing the categories, subcategories and tags.

1. Edited lists on paper
2. Input the category and subcategory changes on the categories page
3. Then in the posts list page, using the nifty quick edit feature, visited each post that needed changes and updated each post’s category and tags

Now my site is outlined more clearly and it’s more focused for me too. It works differently for different types of sites. It’s worked a little differently for Telling Stories, my creative writing blog, but it still helped. Remember, even though your site may seem to expand on its own, you are in control.

And, while I’ve got a handle on the theory, mine is definitely a work in progress. So please feel free to share your tips and insights below.

If you think your blog is growing far afield of your original intent, take a close look at it. Start with a review of your categories, subcategories and tags. Revising these areas may give you a fresh focus. If you’re new to blogging, even if your blog covers any and everything, growing your outline deliberately and with consideration of your focus will help you to not feel overwhelmed.

Okay, everything is in place. Your computer is on in the right program, your glass of water is cool, and your fingers are all warmed up. What’s the first thing you think of?

If the first thing that crosses your mind, is the endpoint, then you might be missing the good parts of work. The best way to do a job is to focus on the process of doing it. When I sit down with a project, I think about how I’m going to do my best work.

How Do I get Focused?

One of the biggest things that you can do to help your focus is to work in a job you really like. It can help your focus immeasurably, to have to be mentally present with work that you enjoy. And laying that aside, here are some practices I’ve put in place to be more focused.

• Meditate – There are many good variations on meditation. For work I simply need to give my thoughts space, and then turn down their volume
• Write in your journal – Writing in the mornings, lets my thoughts out by recording them on paper, making it easier for me to understand what they’re saying to me and to quiet them
• Get proper rest – to be alert. You know, a sluggish mind is less able to remain focused
• Get proper nourishment – hunger pangs don’t last forever but they can pull your attention
• Be prepared to work – having all your tools at hand means you don’t have to search for basics
• Make room for work thoughts – keep something handy so that when you have thoughts that demand airing, write them down and promise to return to them later

What are the Benefits of Good Focus?

First, what is focus? For our purpose, focus is the dedicated concentration on a particular assignment. It is achieved when you’re mentally present with your work, and these are some of the benefits you can expect:

• You can actually attract related thoughts
• You’re generally working more efficiently
• You may discover good parts about jobs you don’t like
• Better work improves your confidence
• You get to enjoy doing your work as you move through tasks smoothly and in a relaxed manner

A Caveat

It sounds good right? Easy? If you’re anything like me, that’s a lot of work. It takes serious effort to quiet my thoughts at times. In the evenings when I can’t shut off the work I want to get done, it cuts into my rest time. There’s balance to be achieved for this to work.

And you may fall out of balance from time to time—I do. There’s my plan, and then there’s my life—sometimes they clash. Be ready to return to your practice, how ever you set it up, and begin again. It does get easier.

How do you get and remain focused, and get present, in the moment, with your work? What happens when you’re working on a project that you don’t care for? Do you have a plan to stay focused to the end?

Blogging is a lot of work, and it’s a pleasure too. I’m including my pictures, now, every chance I get. I may have to start shopping on Flickr or other image vendor site. More than likely though, it’ll finally push me to start to plan my photography shoots—to cover my posting needs. Lately, a bigger issue is my generally flagging FOCUS.

Focus Can be Hard Work

Although writing for my blogs is satisfying, several things must be present for me to generate accpetable posts. One of the most important for me is FOCUS. It comes to mind lately because I’ve been a bit distracted. To regain my focus, it’s important to know what’s blurring my vision.

Even for something that I enjoy, there are times when I’m just not fully present with it. In blogging everything starts to feel the same and there’s no newness to what I’m writing. It’s like smelling perfume; after you smell 4 I think, they all smell the same. And who wants posts that offer nothing new?

4 Things that Blur My Focus

1. There are times when I don’t have a clear purpose or point for my post. I have trouble writing just to be writing, when it comes to posting.
2. Getting ahead of myself is another problem I sometimes run into. I want to put everything out there in one epic post. Clearly, that’s not the best choice to make.
3. When I allow intrusions of random thoughts and concerns to intrude on my writing sessions, I can lose track in mid-thought.
4. I have trouble sleeping right now, because I have so many things on my mind to get done. The lack of sleep can make me a little fuzzy, which defeats the reason I’m awake. Often times it makes the other reasons worse, if it doesn’t precipitate them.

If I stop blogging tomorrow, I will appreciate the experience forever. Right now I’m staying awake to write and there’s no way that I need to be awake right now. There’s also no way that I’m going to press the publish button tonight because I know that what’s here may scare me when I’m fully alert. I know who’s in charge, but still I fight.

In a post, Problogger author Darren Rowse asked his readers how long they take to write a post. I saw answers that ranged from 10 minutes to days. I fall in there, as another responder said, depending on my focus. Lately, I’m near the slower publishing times.

Being Well-Rested can Fix Focus

I want to be one of the faster blog writers. Things that hang me up are all surmountable. I have a few tactics that I use to get the job done. Some of the things that help me are meditation and journal writing. Gratitude is a key salve in the process of sharpening my focus. These all help me to calm my thoughts. And the main thing that I do, before anything, is to rest more.

You need more than sleep. Usually, when I get blurred it’s because I’ve stopped resting, too. A rested mind is one that can easily clear thoughts. The ability to quiet your mind is how you prepare sleep. Sometimes, a simple word I use before I go to bed is “tomorrow,” to dismiss my thoughts so that I can sleep.

I have a schedule, but many times I want to go longer. When I notice my focus is not so sharp, I rely on discipline to stop when I’m scheduled and rest. In my resting times I do different things to clear my head to be rejuvenated.

So, why do all this for blogging? Really, I won’t be declared a master blog writer this week. But I work at it just the same because I know that improvement comes with effort over time. And as long as I can take joy in and appreciate what I’m doing, it’s worth my effort to see it through.

What do you do to regain your focus? How do you know when you’ve lost it? If any of this sounds familiar to you, please share your experiences.

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