To focus means to narrow your scope of attention. “Focusing on 7 things” is impossible under that definition. Spreading your attention between 7 things or even as many as 3 things will cause you to be ineffective and waste a lot of time. It is far more effective to focus on one item, get it done or moved along to the next step then “focus” on the next item on the list. The reason it is more effective to concentrate is that switching back and forth causes you to have to re-start or re-center your thinking every time your focus is moved from one task to the next. In sales trying to make a cold call here and another one there will waste many minutes and hours in your week as you have to gear yourself up each time to make the call. The solution is to dedicate significant blocks of time where you can focus on one task and move it along to a logical stopping point or to a point that something real and lasting is accomplished before you let yourself be distracted by another task.
