When it comes to working efficiently and completing projects sooner, multitasking isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

“If you’re doing two things,” says Sara Gilbert, founder of Strategist Business Development in Montreal, “you’re really doing two half-things.”

You are likely to be more efficient if you spend a stretch of time concentrating on one activity. A “focus zone” chart can help you schedule several specific times of day to be centered on one task or project each.

Gilbert offers four steps to implementing a focus-zone structure into your practice:

1. Identify your most common business activities
Your focus-zone categories will vary depending on the type of business you run. However, there are some standard activities that would apply to most advisors: strategizing; meeting with clients; prospecting; networking; and marketing.

2. Make a chart
Create columns for the days of the week on a sheet of paper — or create a table on your computer. Divide each column into three boxes, representing morning, lunch and afternoon.

Place one activity within each block and focus only on that activity during that time of day. For instance, you may choose Friday afternoon to work on your marketing as a stress-free way to lead into the weekend.

Don’t be concerned that spending an entire morning or afternoon on one task will put you behind. Instead, you’ll get closer to achieving your goals because you will maintain momentum while working on one task. Forcing your brain to jump back and forth between activities wastes time.

3. Label your focus zones
The way you allocate your zones will depend on your current goals. If you’re growing your practice and you want to emphasize prospecting activities, you will have more focus zones for tasks in that area. However, if you’re looking to strengthen existing client relationships, you can allot a few days worth of focus zones to client meetings.

Your lunch focus zones are appropriate times to network with centres of influence. You might not use every lunch for this purpose, but you will have those time slots available.

4. Share with your team
A common problem among entrepreneurs, according to Gilbert, is that they often fail to share their plans with their teams. Your business is almost part of who you are, Gilbert says: “We don’t always understand that we have to share the vision for people to be on board.”

Communicate your priorities to your team members and show them how you’ve organized your focus zone document. Your team can help you to follow this structure.

For example, if you have slotted client meetings for Mondays and Wednesdays, your receptionist will know to schedule client appointments on those days.