Sometimes it just feels like everything is a clutter.  Mixing work with training and personal life of recreation and relaxation your mind starts to wander sometimes.  One thing I always seem to do too much of is think.  Of course it’s a good thing to think, but when you think too much, you can lose your focus on what’s important and what needs to get done.  Thinking about it isn’t going to get it done.  Working on it will.  I catch myself in that rut sometimes and it can be hard to get out of, until you focus. 
I had a teacher that stressed that a lot back when I was in high school.  He’s always say “Focus!” or “Focus in now!”  When you do, great things can happen. 
It takes stepping back and slowing things down for a bit to see where exactly you’re at in the present time.  I had to do that recently before I started up a new training program August 1^st in preparation for the last two runs of 2011 in Michigan and Massachusetts.  It’s not just the running part of it, but planning the travel, transitioning work time into time off to head out and how long I’ll be gone along with other things.  Doing this does help with the mental strength though.  You’re forced to think but in a more focused manner.  Planning day by day, setting a schedule and deadlines for when you need to get things accomplished to make this an easy process. 
I’ve read about proper planning and scheduling in a book I read by John Maxwell a few months ago.  You want to hear about a detailed guy, read any of his books.  He’ll usually explain his schedule and how he operates with it.  That’s one guy that sure knows how to stay organized regardless of what’s going on in life!  He has a lot of things planned out to the hour and some cases, to the minute.  Just to be somewhat prepped and ready for an event, I feel good about it.  Not to the minute, but times to depart, when to arrive and so on. 
One thing I’ve noticed when it comes to preparing is that setting my own work out schedule has helped me to focus on what needs to be done in a timely fashion.  I create my own personal work out sessions of what I want to do, when I want to do them and how long each set is going to last.  I rarely go by reps anymore, but instead by times.  I time each workout and time each rest period which makes you stay more focused on the goal brought forth in your training schedule.  It’s so easy to get caught up in a conversation with someone when you do one set but don’t have a set amount of time of rest in between.  Thirty seconds to a minute is the longest amount of rest during my workout routines for anything.  A lot of times I’ll do what I call a 40/20 circuit and depending on the day and what needs to be done, the rounds will be between three and seven or eight.  The 40/20 means forty seconds of in session working out with a twenty second rest in between the next set.  I will sometimes rotate this with another workout or two as well.  A three round set of three different work outs will only take nine minutes.  You can get a lot done in nine minutes!  When you go hard, focus on what you’re doing and don’t let anything distract your progress, you can get a great sweat going and bring on a burn to the areas you’re working in your body.  It all starts with focus.  Knowing what you want to do, writing out the plan and then acting on it.  Also known as: GETTING’ IT DONE. 
So start it up!  Get your mind ready for a work out that will challenge you not only physically, but mentally too.  Something that will make you think you shouldn’t go any farther.  Something that will make your muscles burn to the point you want to give in and quit doing it.  Once you get to that point in your training, keep going, one more rep, two more reps, if you can, go for three more.  Stay focused and have fun.  Work hard and get it done!