When you focus more on the areas of your life that you care most about, even if those aren’t related to work, you’ll perform better at your job. Here’s why. It might seem counterintuitive that you will get better at your job if you spend more time with your kids, leave work early to volunteer at a local non-profit, or take an hour out of your workday to go to the gym. But according to research, that’s just what happens. How? Here are some reasons:

1 A clearer focus on results that really matter to the people around you.

2 Less wasted effort on activities that aren’t that important.

3 Reduced psychological interference across domains as a result of being less distracted, because you’re taking care of critical needs in those other parts.

4 A virtuous cycle of benefits from one part of your life spilling over to other parts; for example, greater confidence, less crankiness and a stronger sense of control.

Barriers to creating meaningful changes in where you focus your attention – your most precious resource – are real, and there are ways to surmount them.

Take action that's within your control and that you believe will benefit the people who matter most to you in all the different parts of your life, gather data on your impact and continually adjust so you're increasingly able to do what's good for you and for them. – Copyright Harvard Business Review 2015