Henna Business Tips Part 1



Focusing on Tasks


So you want to take care of all the emails you got, or want to sit down and draw out the designs for your upcoming party, or perhaps you want to do your month-end or accounting for this month.  These are all administrative and creative tasks that require your full attention.  You cannot afford to be bothered by other things while you need to focus and accomplish the tasks on hand.  While some tasks might be mundane and administrative tasks, others might actually be fun, creative and hands on.  We all have done it at some point—avoided a task and procrastinated until you are down to the wire—and then you get into panic mode.  In this week’s Henna Business Tips, we will FOCUS on Focus.

Focusing on a task for a certain amount of time is important.  It helps you get something done, and will let you figure out how long it took you to accomplish this task.  For example, you need to make a batch of henna paste—you should know how much time it usually takes you to make the paste and store it (or cone it up properly), so that you can allocate this time for future batches you may want to make.  Below, we outline 5 ways to help you stay focused on your henna business tasks.

1-Avoid the distractions by putting your phone, tablet or laptop in another room, turning it off, or putting it on “sleep” mode.  You can also opt to put your phone on airplane mode for 30-45 minutes so that the alerts from messages, texts, or updates are not distracting you.

2-Get off of social media—Social media can be so engaging and can take up so much of your time.  If you really need to work on your laptop or tablet, make sure no webpages/browsers are open on social media pages.  Social media is supposed to make you social, but when you need to focus on responding to emails, for example, you ONLY want to do that

3-Set yourself a timer.  If you have allocated 30 minutes to responding to emails, or to writing content for your blog, or scheduling facebook posts, make sure you set yourself a timer.  When the timer goes off, you should be done with what you had been working on.  If you need more time, you need to reconsider how much time you should be allocating to that particular task.  Also, ask yourself—was working on this task the only thing I was doing, or was I distracted by other things?

4-Prioritize your to-do list before starting anything.  When you sit down to do your tasks, make a list of what is highest priority.  Sometimes, it might be to mix the henna paste and then move along to other things so that the henna can rest and go through dye release.  When you prioritize your tasks, the list of things does not seem like such a scary thing.  Once you complete the task, you can cross it off or check it off and really feel accomplished.

5-Reward yourself.  When you accomplish a task, be sure to reward yourself.  This could be a reward in any way—have a jellybean, adding 5 minutes to your “relax time task”, taking 10 minutes to scroll through pinterest, playing a few games of solitaire, or doodling a design.  It’s important to reward yourself so that you can train your mind to accomplish things in exchange for a reward.  There is a reason why kids are given stickers or awards—why shouldn’t adults.

6-Have someone check up on you.  Being held accountable is what makes adults do things—otherwise, we all would be couch potatoes or bums.  Team up with a friend and get him/her to check up on your task list.  If the two of you can motivate and hold each other accountable, you both will benefit. 

Hopefully these tips will be the start to you having a more focused and task accomplished day!

Happy henna-ing!  


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