Everyone pretty much knows, at least on some level, that in order to create and run a successful business, they’re going to have to dedicate a good deal of focused attention to the task. It won’t happen overnight.

Focus may just be one of the most important traits to develop, in fact, when it comes to business success. The more focused you are, the more effectively and efficiently you can direct your resources, the better the odds are that your actions will be properly effective, and so on.

If you listen to the author and academic Cal Newport, undistracted focus leads to Deep Work, which in turn exponentially increases your odds of success, in a marketplace where everyone is more distracted than ever before.

So, here are some ways to increase your ability to focus in your professional life.

Outsource, and bring on board companies to manage some of your services for you

Businesses are, by necessity, specialised. That is, they exist in order to handle particular tasks, or offer particular services, that the average person won’t be able to provide for themselves, precisely because they require a significant degree of expertise and resources to produce.

Likewise, however, no single business is going to be specialised in all areas, and for smaller businesses that may be run by only a single person, or a few people at most, handling certain tasks that fall outside the remit of the business may be very difficult and costly in terms of time, labour, and not least of all focus.

In order to streamline your business, and free up a lot of energy and attention to focus on more pressing things, hiring a company to manage some of your services for you may be a great idea. Ebecs, for example, provide managed services for Microsoft business solutions.

Spend a while trying to identify your most productive actions

The 80/20 rule is a popular heuristic in business, and it argues that 80% of your positive results will come from 20% of your actions, while the remaining 80% of your actions will yield only 20you’re your results.

Assuming this principle is true, one of the best ways to increase your ability to focus in your professional life, is to spend some time identifying those core actions, and then to do whatever you can to cut out the rest.

Do what yields significant reward, and what is essential. Try to limit how much time you spend on all the rest.

Reduce distraction ruthlessly, and audit how you’re spending your time

A lot of people take pride in their ability to “multitask”, and there’s a good argument to be made that a lot of the prevailing international business culture in the world today is based on the idea of multitasking at its core.

Employees at big companies are expected to juggle multiple significant projects at once, while also being instantly available for calls and meetings during the day, and sometimes are also asked to handle admin tasks that fall outside of the stipulations of their contract.

And yet, all the research seems to show that “multitasking” dramatically damages performance, and creates chronic distraction and disorder.

So, reduce distractions ruthlessly in your working environment, and stop trying to multitask. Get focused, instead.