How to Increase Website Speed and Make Your Blog Load Faster

You know that Google considers your website speed as one of the ranking factors, don’t you?To have a successful blog, you need to know the ways to increase your blog speed.

Increasing website speed means reducing the site load time, so that your site takes less time to open. You can dramatically speed up your WordPress site in easy ways.

One tool that can always help you make your blog fast is a site speed test.

Though site speed tests are only performance testing tools and do not directly increase your site speed, they give you suggestions that you can implement on your own and achieve your aim.

Well, you must be wondering that I’m a super woman who even knows such technical stuff. 

But firstly, I’d like to clear up that improving the speed of your website does not require much of technical knowledge.

Secondly, this is something that my husband taught me and I’m just writing down my training experience, hoping to turn it into a compelling post!

My sole purpose is to help you, just in case you need to fasten your blog speed too. If need be, you can just copy the site speeding process that I’ve described here.

Tell you what, I personally tried the entire process explained in this post and it was a smooth cakewalk.

Therefore, if I can do it, so can you!

Let’s go ahead and get rid of high site load times. Perhaps many of you know how to speed up your website, but some of you either don’t do it or do it the wrong way.

I too didn’t do it the right way until recently, and look how fast my blog is now!

How to Do a Site Speed Test

You can have answers to all your questions if you’ve Google with you, isn’t it?

What you need to do is Google for “site speed test”, and select the top 3 or 4 speed testing websites.

Looking up at the search results, I selected the top 3 sites: Pingdom, Google PageSpeed, and GTmetrix.

You don’t have to look for more because they all vary in their test results and tend to confuse you further.

Your main reason to conduct a website speed test should be to seek the recommendations to make relevant changes on your blog in order to make it load faster.

Did you know that you can also get the site speed stats on your Google Analytics?

You can even check your blog speed on your Alexa ranking page. However, it does not give you any suggestion to improve the site speed.

Okay, all you need to do is just fill in your site URL where it is asked on these three selected sites, and hit the test button. That’s it!

When I tested my blog on these speed-testing sites, I got these main site improvement suggestions to increase my blog speed.

Suggestions to Improve Site Speed

Generally, the elements that make your site slow are – JavaScripts, CSS, and Images.

Below is what Google PageSpeed test suggested for my blog, Aha!NOW.

These are the recommendations I received related to these elements from all major performance testing tools – Google PageSpeed, Pingdom, and GTmetrix.

1)      Eliminate render-blocking JavaScript and CSS in above-the-fold content

2)      Defer parsing of JavaScript or Make fewer HTTP requests

3)      Combine external JavaScript and Combine external CSS

4)      Minify JavaScript and CSS

5)      Optimize images

Some other suggestions were:

1)      Add Expires headers

2)      Remove query strings from static resources

3)      Use cookie-free domains

4)      Leverage browser caching

5)      Enable compression

So, I’ve these 10 suggestions from website speed test results to help me increase my blog speed.

Honestly speaking, these terms and looked like Greek and Latin to me! I mean I couldn’t understand these recommendations all that much, except the reference to optimizing the images.

But the fact is that you don’t have to know it all. There are facilities and services that do it all for you!

What You Require to Increase Your Website Speed

Later I’ll also use a paid CDN service to better the website performance, and a couple of other free WordPress plugins.

But the whole process isn’t just simple enough to install the plugin and forget about it.

You need to be careful about the settings in the plugins so they give the best results.

W3TC Setting for Better Site Speed

If you performed your site speed test on Google Page Speed, some of you might’ve come up with a recommendation that requires you to “eliminate render-blocking java script and CSS in the above-the-fold content”.

My husband and I struggled with this problem and tried everything possible to remove these scripts from the top part of the blog pages, which seemed like an impossible task.

Moreover, like some of you non-techies, the learning curve was very steep for us, but no matter how vertical it is, if you are determined to scale it – you can!

We found that we could achieve the objective through W3 Total Cache plugin that we use. I recommend you also use it, if you haven’t been doing so.

For specific settings to remove render-blocking scripts, do the following in the minify section of W3TC plugin on your blog:

• Choose “minify” in the JS minify settings
• Choose “Non-blocking using ‘async’” as the Embed type

In the JS file management section, do the following:

• First choose your WordPress active theme
• Fill in the render-blocking JS file URL that you see in the Google Page Speed test results
• Add more scripts, so you mention all the render-blocking scripts

• Choose “All templates” under Template and “Embed in ” as the Embed location.
• To remove the blocking CSS, first enable the CSS minify settings, and fill in all the CSS file URLs that you get from the Google Page Speed test result, in the CSS file management section.

Voila! Hit “Save all settings” button.

As you can see, I had 9 JS and 12 CSS render blocking scripts that caused my blog pages to take more time to load.

Now, after implementing the above, these are reduced to 1 JS and 2 CSS scripts in the above-the-fold area. Not bad, isn’t it?

However, experts say that you need to be careful when minifying scripts – silly mistakes can break your pages.

CloudFlare Setting to Increase Site Speed

CloudFlare is a multi-purpose online facility, and I’d highly recommend you to use its free plan.

It is a CDN optimizer and provides analytics as well as security. Thus, it protects and accelerates your site.

When you use it, go to performance settings under CloudFlare Settings, then do the following:

• Choose “Aggressive” caching level,
• Opt for “Rocket Loader” that automatically reduces the load times of your JavaScripts.

When you’re using CloudFlare in conjunction with W3TC, do not enable the “Auto Minify” options in CloudFlare.

If you enable that, then you won’t be able to use the option to eliminate the render-blocking scripts in W3TC as discussed above.

How is it going so far? Hope you are following all that I mentioned, and if not, you have the comment section to ask your questions.

I think now you are all set to drastically reduce the website load times and make it fast, aren’t you? 

Increasing Website Speed Using W3TC, CloudFlare, and MaxCDN

For the purpose of comparison and reference, I checked the website speed at every stage on two popular online speed test websites – Pingdom and GTmetrix.

I made the first check before I embarked on the speeding journey, when I didn’t have any caching plugin or CDN services associated with Aha!NOW.

These different speed testing website show different results, so probably you don’t get the accurate speed, but at least you get to know what changes help your blog to become fast.

Initially, Pingdom showed a load time of nearly 14 seconds, and GTmetrix displayed a site speed of about 8 seconds for my blog.

Now, this is not considered a good speed.

GTmetrix recommends the website to have load times of below 4 seconds.

There are some speed testing websites that advise blog speed of not more than or around 2 seconds. I know you’d want even faster site speeds.

You need to pay more attention to the page load times or site speed as shown by the speed test results than the reported performance grades.

I tried using only CloudFlare or MaxCDN (aff link) separately and tested their impact on my blog speed.

But these alone didn’t bring me nearer to my target, which was to bring my site speed to near about 1 second!

This shows that you cannot do without the W3Total Cache plugin, which will help you enhance the power of CloudFlare and MaxCDN.

Using W3Total Cache Plugin

This caching plugin slashes down the load times drastically.

From 14.5 seconds, my blog load time came down to 3.76 seconds! That’s about 74% increase in site speed!!

This was the Pingdom test results; let’s check the other one too.

GTmetrix brought the blog load time from 8.05 seconds to 6.16 seconds, which is about 23% increase in speed.

Using W3Total Cache and CloudFlare

I used this combination for a long time. CloudFlare can also be managed from your WordPress dashboard using the W3TC plugin, so you don’t have to go to CloudFlare’s site every time.

These are the speed test results after adding the FREE plan of CloudFlare to my blog.

Pingdom test results show that my blog load time reduced from 3.76 seconds to 425 mili seconds, and that’s under half a second!

GTmetrix brought it down from 6.16 seconds to 5.49 seconds. Notice that both Page Speed and YSlow grades are “A”. 

Using W3Total Cache, CloudFlare, and MaxCDN

It doesn’t get better than this! These three together beat the site load time blues totally.

MaxCDN  is a paid service, and I added it to my blog through the W3TC plugin.

Pingdom reported reduction of my blog load times from 425ms to 344ms, which is just unbelievable!

Did you read that – “Your website is faster than 99% of all tested websites”! Wow!!

GTmetrix test results did not show much of a change, and the site load time nears to 5 seconds from a bit more than 6 seconds.

While this is good, it made me wonder if I can still make my blog speed better.

Through some research and experiment, I found a WordPress plugin called “BJ Lazy Load”, which was best suited for this purpose.

It worked! This lazy plugin brought down my blog page load time from 5 seconds to under 4 seconds.

You need to remember that these test results vary each time you conduct them, and they’ll show different values if you chose different parameters each time.

Can you really trust the website speed test results?

Personally, I don’t think they’re always accurate. They’re mainly just an estimate and should be used mainly to get recommendations.

Many times my blog showed low load time in the site speed test results, but my real time experience when I surfed the blog was somewhat different.

Is it speedy enough at your end? Let me add that this particular post might be heavy due to excess of images I’ve used.

The test results also vary as per your location and other details.

For performance testing purposes, I kept my test site location be the same on all testing tools – Dallas, Texas, USA. I also chose Chrome as the browser type and DSL as the type of Internet connection, to minimize result variations.

New Kid in the Town

As I was doing the site speed-testing round, I received an update to my WordPress security plugin – Wordfence.

They’ve integrated a caching facility with their security plugin and they claim it’s the best caching option available for WordPress sites.

It’s caching is based on their new falcon engine. It appends the site .htaccess file (very important file!), and asks you to download it first, and then go ahead to increase the site speed by 30 to 50 times!

So how could I miss out on testing this option too?

Boosting Site Speed Using Wordfence, CloudFlare, and MaxCDN

This didn’t take much of time.

I had already mentioned that the site load time was of about 14 seconds by Pingdom and 8 seconds by GTmetrix without using any speed enhancing options.

So, I disabled W3Total Cache and switched on the Wordfence Falcon Engine, and used it as a standalone speed enhancer to my blog.

Using Wordfence Falcon Engine

This was a shocker. The Falcon brought the site load time down by about 87%! Much better than the W3TC plugin.

Pingdom showed the site speed up from 14.57 seconds to 1.83 seconds, and GTmetrix from 8.05 seconds to 5.22 seconds.

Using Wordfence and CloudFlare

I added CloudFlare to Wordfence Falcon. While CloudFlare did not show improved site speed with Wordfence using GTmetrix –  Pingdom however showed increased speed.

GTmetrix displayed better grades, whereas Pingdom showed reduced site load time from 1.89 seconds to 378 ms.

Using Wordfence, CloudFlare, and MaxCDN

Finally, I added MaxCDN to the combination of Wordfence Falcon and CloudFlare. Again, GTmetrix doesn’t show much of a difference in site speed, but Pingdom also didn’t improve the track record.

It seems that MaxCDN wasn’t very useful  if you already had a combination of Wordfence and CloudFlare.

But the BJ lazy Load plugin again made a difference. It brought the GTmetrix speed score to 1.15 seconds! That was my site speed target!!

Now, you really have two good options – either use W3TC or Wordfence’s Falcon caching engine.

The advantages you’ve using W3TC plugin are:

1)      You can easily manage CloudFlare and MaxCDN through the dashboard of W3TC

2)      You can defer or parse the JS and CSS files

3)      You can minify JS, CSS, and HTML

Though Wordfence facilitates good site load times, I guess you’ll have to use other plugins along with it that can minify the JS, CSS, and HTML as well as manage the CDN.

Or perhaps, they’ll be coming up with these supportive features in their future upgrades.

In fact, I didn’t know that you cannot manage a CDN without a caching plugin. As I disabled W3TC plugin, the CDN got disabled automatically.

So, if you need to use CDN as a standalone service or use it along with Wordfence, and if you’re using its Falcon caching engine, then use the CDN Linker plugin. This will manage your CDN without W3TC.

You do not need any separate plugin for CloudFlare, as you can easily manage it from its own site.

Conclusion

I was always conscious and worried about my blog’s speed.

That’s because my blog’s home page is really heavy with so many images, and I didn’t want to sacrifice the present magazine theme for anything else.

This resulted in my site to slow down which probably led to higher bounce rate.

Obviously, who has the time to wait for a site to load, when they can view and read many more sites in that duration?

After going through the recent revelations and experiences with increasing website speed, I would say that a WordPress website definitely needs the triple power of W3TC, CloudFlare, and MaxCDN.

I was able to resolve almost all the 10 problems as suggested by the various speed testing websites and as mentioned earlier in this post.

Just look at this summary of the Pingdom speed test.

Look at the graph running down. You too can achieve this for your blog in less than an hour’s time, considering if you’ve to register for CloudFlare and MaxCDN (aff link), and install the plugins. Else, it would take even less time.

Of course, you can also use Wordfence’s Falcon, which looks very promising, but it’s just come into the market and I’d like to give it some time before really adopting it on my blog.

I hope my experiences with site speed tests will help you decide what’s best for your blog. These are not expert views because I’m no website speed expert, but I just shared things that worked for me.

There is one more option that can impact site speed, and that’s your web host. My blog is on Hostgator’s shared web hosting for the last two years, and it is going great, which you can see from the speed results.

But, I’m sure my blog speed will increase more and it will load faster if and when I shift to a better and high-end web host that is not shared.

I know more can be done to enhance the blog speed and provide better browsing experience to the blog visitors.

However, I’m happy with my little effort that I enjoyed sharing with you, and the website speed that I was  able to achieve despite being a non-techie.

If you’re a technical person and an expert with increasing website speed, I’d welcome your tips and more suggestions that you can add to take care of aspects that weren’t covered here.

Make the blog comments a great resource and an extension of this post for the readers by sharing your tech wisdom there! 

Over to You –

What did you do to increase your site speed? Which site speed tests do you use and how did they help you? What are the other factors that can improve the website speed? Share in the comment

What Google Says about Backlinks for future search rankings?

Question : Google changed the search engine market in the '90s by evaluating a website's backlinksinstead of just the content, like others did. Updates like Panda and Penguin show a shift in importance towards content. Will backlinks lose their importance? - Leah, New York. Courtesy : Google

Content is still a King in Google Search Rankings

From the above video published on 5th May 2014 by +Matt Cutts it clearly shows still Google gives importance to backlinks to lesser extent when content is unique one, quality one and especially content published by an expert in the particular field. When it comes to quality of the content, Google says even though there is no sufficient backlinks to support that content, still that content to be shown in Google search index. Wow this is awesome. Because people like +Harleena Singh not have sufficient knowledge in terms of SEO. But she is real master and expert in her own field that is "Life Style" and solving "Human Problems" and now her blogs also give Blogging Solutions to webmasters. So keep that in mind. Google moves towards this step is wonderful to watch. 

Share your thoughts on this topic below in the comment section. If you like this post then consider sharing with your social media friends. 

How To Stay Focused To Achieve Your Goals

Can you achieve your goals without staying focused? I don’t think so. Many people wonder how to stay focused and achieve success.

I think being focused is the ability to say that “I’m doing this work and nothing else, and no one can stop me from doing it”.

Well, learning how to focus is in-fact a matter of making it a daily habit, isn’t it? You cannot stop a person with a focused mind to do what he or she plans.

I’ve heard many people say that they start off well with good intentions, but become unfocused after a while. Don’t worry. You’re not the only one to feel this way.

Sometimes I also start a project, work a little on it, and then lose focus or get distracted, but not for long – as I take a little break and I’m back to work again, more focused than before.

Has this happened with you too? How do you remain alert and concentrate on your work? Let me know in the comments.

“Stay focused, go after your dreams and keep moving toward your goals.” ~ LL Cool J

How Successful People Remain Focused

You’ll mostly hear people say that they are not motivated and need to have enough passion to achieve goals. They feel only successful people have this kind of willpower and unstoppable passion, something that they lack.

But you know, even successful people get bored like you and me. They also sometimes lack motivation and need daily inspiration. They have also learnt how to rise up every time they fall.

The huge difference is that those who want to achieve goals don’t let their emotions influence their actions.

That’s right. Not only your disturbing emotions but also uncontrollable, useless, or unrelated thoughts might cause you to drift from what you’re doing and bring you out of focus.

But the successful lots find ways to work up through the boredom. They do all it takes to achieve their goals. It’s their capability to do the task when it’s not easy, and that is what separates them from others.

So, if you too want to be successful, then you need to follow the ways of the successful people to zero in on your target and stay focused.

Distractions are a major problem that does not allow people to stay focused. You cannot achieve goals if you are distracted. But who decides you have to stop where. No one, but you yourself!

Places like Facebook and other social media networks, or whether it is video games, TV, and text messages – they are all supposed to be used in moderation. You need to limit your time using them.

However, most people drown themselves into such distractions and make them their core activities, such that it leaves them no time to do other tasks in hand.

Being in focus is an uphill task for them.

Are you in a similar situation? Do you think you need to know how to stay focused and achieve your goals too? Then, this post is for you.

What You Need to Stay Focused

There are certain requirements for staying focused, and if you consider them, then attaining goals will not be a problem for you.

• Set Priorities

There might be many areas in your life that need attention. It becomes tough to decide which ones need immediate attention or where you need to focus first. That is because you want them ALL done now!

When you want to focus on a single task, it becomes tough to keep the other pending tasks aside. You begin feeling overwhelmed and feel you need to do all those task and be present all over.

That’s when you think that a quick Facebook or Twitter break will do you good, and you head there to check on your messages or notifications. And those ‘few minutes’ break turns to perhaps 1-2 hours!

Remember that whatever you do today will reflect on your life ahead. If you spend 1 hour on Facebook, for example, then you are setting that standard for yourself.

But what if instead you write 1000 words during that 1 hour you waste, imagine the amount you’d accomplish in a year’s time!

Writing nearly 365,000 words, that’s nearly writing a new blog post daily, or writing 4-5 full books in a year, if you had not wasted that 1 hour.

• Believe in yourself and your task in hand

You need to think positive to stay focused and achieve goals. If a task appeals to you, such that you are willing to take risk accomplishing it and don’t fear failure, it’s worthy of your undivided attention.

You need to move forward and make progress by believing in your abilities, in areas that matter to you. Once you accomplish one task, turn your focus on the next one and move ahead.

• Fight distractions

Distraction of home, work, family, friends, events and other things stop people from staying focused and achieving their goals.

It takes time and effort to remain focused to achieve goals that sometimes you give up.

You need to plan your task strategically. To stay on focus, decide on the best time to do your work. Chalk out the distractions that would arise and how you would react, and then deal with them.

Focus means to think strategically, and you need to remain committed and dedicated to be after one thing till the end at the cost of other possibilities.

Some people let distractions rule over them, but remember, you are distracted because you let yourself be distracted.

For example, if your friend calls or messages, your friend doesn’t know you are working on something.

Just let it be- end your tasks and then call back! If you explain, people understand that it’s your work time and you need to stay focused while working.

Start by keeping aside just one hour daily to focus on a main area of your choice. Train your mind to stay focused. You need to ‘make’ time for things that matter to you, isn’t it?

Take the example of Thomas Edison. He failed so many times before finally succeeding in inventing the lamp. But imagine if he hadn’t stayed focused on his goals – would he have achieved success?

He kept trying after each failure and remained focused till he achieved his goal.

• Accept that you may not achieve success

You’re only human and when you focus on any task, you pour all your energy into it. Your brain tells you it is an important task because you focus on a single idea, task, or thought.

However, sometimes you cannot achieve your goals despite being focused. Remember, focus does not guaranty success but only improves and increase your chances to be successful.

Also know that it is alright to accept this fact – face your failure and learn from it.

Don’t fear failure because that is your stepping stone to success. Remember, it’s ok to fail at times, and that doesn’t mean you stop trying. Being alert, aware, and determined helps you attain your goals.

“The true measure of success is how many times you can bounce back from failure.” ~ Stephen Richards

People don’t focus on their goals because they are afraid. They hesitate, procrastinate, and think negative, and try ways to escape from doing things.

They don’t want to try things out, or move out of their comfort zones.

Achieving Your Goals is a Process

People think that achieving goals is the end result. For them success is an event that can be achieved.

For example, “If I write a book, I’d achieve success”, or “If I get featured in a magazine, I’d gain credibility.”
You forget that to write a book, you need to fall in love with the process of writing and keep writing daily!

But if you see people who consistently achieve their goals, you realize it’s not the event or end result that matter. Instead, it’s the journey, their commitment to the process – it’s a daily practice for them.

“Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.” ~ Greg Anderson

So, don’t worry about the end result – fall in love with the journey, the boredom, the repeated process, the practice, the process and enjoy each moment. 

15 Ways to Stay Focused and Achieve Your Goals

Always keep your goals always in your mind. Yes, distractions are a part of life and you’ll find them everywhere. However, how you deal with those distractions lies in your hands.

“The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.” ~ Bruce Lee

1- Organize Your Workplace

Whatever you are working at, you need to have a clean and well organized working area because that helps you remain focused and you can work with full concentration.

It doesn’t take long, just a few minutes to keep things in the right place before you start work. Things you don’t need or use, keep away.

It’s said a cluttered work area creates a clutter in the mind too, so keep things organized.

2- Find Your Purpose to Stay Motivated

When you have a purpose to end your task, your work will motivate you and thus help you concentrate.

Some people lose focus as they cannot see what they might achieve and prefer doing other things.

After finding your purpose, write it down – define it as that will be your driving force to achieve your goal.

For example, if you are blogging, remind yourself why it is important for you and what you want to achieve from it.

3- Define Your Goals

Define your goals by chalking out the number of hours you are going to work and make list of your priorities.

When you write them down, they become more real and can be reviewed and used to encourage you. This helps to take care of distractions as and when they come up and how you can deal with them.

Don’t overburden yourself by focusing on more than a few goals at a time as it will demotivate you and reduce your chance of achieving your goals.

Divide your time and keep accomplishing them one by one.

Narrow down your focus by completing the goals based on the priority. By defining your goals you stay focused to complete them by the end of the day.

4- Learn to Manage Your Time

Once you define your goals and make your list, write down how much time it will take you to complete each task. You are your best judge, so be realistic and complete each task within the set time limit.

Don’t become overwhelmed with time consuming tasks. Instead, break them into small bits and complete each one, one at a time.

“My success, part of it certainly, is that I have focused in on a few things.” ~ Bill Gates

This way you will be focused on your task rather than spending it chit-chatting with friends or wondering where time went by!

5- Use Visualization

When you want to remain focused you need to have a strong visual image of what you want to achieve – your target, so that you can reach your goal by focusing on the end result.

The more you visualize what you want to obtain, the more you can focus on achieving it. Achievers have the ability to visualize their goals as already accomplished.

“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” ~ Mark Twain

Imagine how your family and friends would react once you achieve your goals – that is the power of visualization.

6- Take Breaks In-between

As you work, your alertness reduces and you tend to get easily distracted. So, it’s good to work in shifts of 30 or 60 or 90 minute blocks, depending on what suits you. Set a timer and take frequent breaks.

You could take a short walk, listen to music, chat with friends, or cook and do the household chores.

Some people like to reward themselves by visiting Facebook, but for a limited time during such breaks. But don’t get stuck there! Come right back once the timer goes off 

7- Turn OFF Everything

When people ask me how to stay focused, I always tell them one thing – just turn off all your tabs, emails, phones, and everything around you.

When you sit to work – just concentrate on your work and nothing else. When you say yes to achieve your goals, you must NO to other things, isn’t it?

“Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.” ~ Alexander Graham Bell

If you are working in an office, you can set up a time when you can take your calls, check emails, or make a system so that urgent messages can reach you. Other than that, just switch-off!

8- Learn To Say NO

This is a tough one for me! But to stay focused, you need to say, “No” to a lot of people and things.

When it’s work time, just say, “I’m sorry I cannot do that for you as I’m working on a deadline.”

I know how hard it is to say these lines. I sometimes postpone a response by saying, “Let me think it over and get back to you”. This avoids an outright NO or rejecting an offer.

“Focusing is about saying No.” ~ Steve Jobs

Remember, once you refuse politely, people understand and begin respecting your way or working. Of course, help out and do their work once you complete your task.

9- Make Time for Distractions

Distractions aren’t bad, but you need to schedule them so they work for you. Use them to reward yourself after you achieve your goal or end your task.

Distractions like playing a game, calling friends, visiting Faceook or your other social networks are all good, provided you stick to your schedule and time yourself.

You need to learn to not get distracted by trying to practice mediation and focusing on single-tasking. For example, if you are reading the newspaper, just do that, don’t check your email or status update.

There are many apps to fight distraction you can use, without letting them become distractions!

10- Create New Habits

To focus and reach your goals do something that is repeated daily, even if it’s just for 10 minutes each day. Make it a daily habit and analyze your progress by recording it daily.

They say that it takes 21 days to create a new habit.

So, if you want to move from an old habit that you know is not letting you focus, to one that will help you, stick with the habit for 3 weeks to see a change.

When you do something consistently for so long, it becomes a part of your personality and you eventually keep doing it without really thinking of it.

11- Improve Your Focus

Some people get distracted easily. For such people, just take any task and give yourself half an hour to work on that task without taking any break.

Then slowly increase your time and focus by a few more minutes to see how long you can increase your stamina. Reading and writing continuously help in such cases.

I’ve learnt this over time and can sit for hours at a stretch, but I remind myself to keep getting up and walking a little after every hour. How about you?

12- Don’t Multi-task

You might think that multi-tasking helps you complete many tasks all at once. But that’s wrong as it just slows you down and confuses your brain.

You need to reset your brain each time you shift between two tasks. However, a lot depends on what all tasks you multi-task with.

Like cooking and listening to music is fine, but cooking and chatting on Facebook will not work. It might leave you with a burnt meal. 

13- Be With People Who Have Similar Goals

Sometimes you are surrounded by people who prevent you from achieving your goals. They prevent you from staying focused. It can be tough to breakaway because these people maybe your family or friends.

They may not share the same goals or be interested in your goals. You need to extend your circle and move from those who hold you back if you want to achieve goals in life.

Having goal buddies or friends who share the same goals as you, helps you remind about your goal and motivate you when you feel a little down.

14- Use Positive Affirmations

Stay away from negative self-talks. Instead, use positive affirmations and remind yourself about the goals you want to achieve.

Positive affirmations help you believe in yourself and stay focused. Writing down your goals in present tense helps in personal affirmations.

For example, instead of saying “I want to earn more money”, say “I earn $5,000 a month” would be better.

After writing, read your goals in a loud and firm voice as it would make you proud of what it will feel like to reach it, and ignite the passion to accomplish your goal.

Some people create and use mantras that are small phrases that you can repeat daily – they encourage and remind you to concentrate on your goals.

15- Take Care of Yourself

You cannot remain focused if you do not care about yourself and your health.

Taking adequate rest, sleeping for at least 7-8 hours a day, eating a balanced diet and staying healthy are things you need to do to stay focused.

Mediate and concentrate on your breathing. Deep breathe, stay calm, and serene. When you inhale and exhale and concentrate on your breath, you are able to focus better when you sit to work.

Give yourself a break if you work continuously to avoid burnout (good reminder for me!) because that affects your productivity a great deal.

Don’t forget to celebrate each achievement by acknowledging and rewarding yourself for the progress you’ve made towards your goal.

I am not just saying this to praise myself here, but just to make you realize that if I can achieve my goals, you can achieve your goals too. All you need to do is stay centered, committed, and determined.

“Don’t dwell on what went wrong. Instead, focus on what to do next. Spend your energies on moving forward toward finding the answer.” ~ Denis Waitley

So, are you ready to start? I hope now you will not lose your focus, nor procrastinate or get caught up by distractions. Instead, remain focused and achieve goals one after the other.

Cheers to your success! 

Over to you –

Do you know how to stay focused to achieve your goals? What are the ways to you use to remain focused and attain goals? Share it in the comments.