My dear Friends,

Do you sometimes read a page repeatedly without actually knowing what you have read? Or do you have a habit of zoning out during meetings with your wealth advisor to plan your next engagements? Honestly, I do!

Can you focus on one task while keeping track of others? I can not! The truth is dividing our attention across multiple tasks increases the chances of doing something wrong or completely missing something.

Did you know that multitasking is the biggest inefficient skill women have?

Most importantly, this inability to stay focused makes you less successful in whatever you do and more dependent on others. Yet far worse, it can negatively affect your financial future.

Focus is essential to a female investor’s success – especially in uncertain times!

What it means to be focussed

Being focused means that you have a clear goal and objective and whatever you do is dedicated to achieving this goal and objective. When you plan your next steps, you base that decision on how you can make progress towards that goal with the time and resources available.

Focused attention can be described as being in a state of flow, where you’re fully engrossed in the task and don’t have to filter out intrusive outside “noise”.

Lack of focus

The alternative to focusing is doing a whole lot of everything, jumping from one task to another or from one idea to the next without ever getting anything done. Indeed, people who are not focussed are awfully busy all the time but get little done of what actually matters. Their choices are driven by:

In fact, studies found that multitaskers believe in accomplishing a great deal, but they work slower and to a lower standard. Because someone who does not focus uses time unintentionally and so wastes energy. Without focus, we do not prioritize and make poor decisions.

“Being focused means being fully present in the moment. This is the optimal state for learning and taking in information.”

Sabrina Romanoff, PsyD, clinical psychologist, professor at Yeshiva University, New York

The difficulty of being focussed

Admittedly, it is difficult to stay focused on one task. We live in a world where we are constantly bombarded with information- from advertising to news. At times it seems everybody tries to get our attention.

Even though distractions are the number one factor that interferes with focus. However, many of them are self-induced, and our brains can get overwhelmed.

Being unable to focus is generally annoying. Yet, for female investors, this habit can become very expensive. Our limited attention span is used up quickly, and we are prevented from moving into deeper thought processes when we need to make investment decisions.

Ping-ponging from topic to topic uses up energy and fuel. So it gets harder to understand, decide, recall, memorize and control investment decisions, or any other decisions for that matter. Some decide not to decide at all and rather defer decision-making to others. The bottom line is that being unable to focus leads to more mistakes, forgetfulness and loss of useful insights.

The lack of focus chips away at everything in our lives, including the fun stuff. Over time self-confidence erodes and insecurity builds, leading to irritability, depression and anxiety. But above all, a lack of focus will increase our dependency on others to make decisions for us.

Ultimately we will abandon goals- like deciding on our financial future. This can have consequences for your financial well-being in the future.

“Life is like camera focus on what’s important and you’ll capture it perfectly!!!!”

Ziad K. Abdelnour, CEO Blackhawk Partners INC.,USA

Improve your focus

Focusing is an important cognitive ability that helps us complete tasks. It is vital to activities such as listening, learning, reading, studying, and working. If you’re having difficulty focusing, there are steps you can take to improve your focus and be more productive.

So, not all is lost – there are strategies to improve your ability to focus:

Being focused on investing

At some point in life, most investors do experience market volatility. A focused investor neither panics nor ends up withdrawing her investment. However, the distracted investor overreacts and makes an emotional but wrong decision. Consequently locking in losses and missing out on future potential profits.

However, a female investor with a focused investment approach gears her assets towards meeting her financial goals, and the day-to-day fluctuations will not affect the female investor’s plan. A long-term horizon gives her investments a better chance to reach her potential goals.

The focussed female investor

Most importantly, woman with the ability to focus will not only be successful investors but are ultimately more independent.

Quick read

Being focused means that you have a clear goal and objective and whatever you do is dedicated to achieving this goal and objective. Being unable to focus is generally annoying. Yet, for female investors, this habit can become very expensive. We are prevented from moving into deeper thought processes when making investment decisions.

But not all is lost – there are strategies to improve your ability to focus. a female investor with a focused investment approach gears her assets towards meeting her financial goals, and the day-to-day fluctuations will not affect the female investor’s plan. A long-term horizon gives her investments a better chance to reach her potential goals.

Most importantly, women who can focus will be more successful investors and, ultimately, more independent and confident.