Employees who work mainly on their computers (and let’s be honest, most of us do), are distracted every 10.5 minutes on average. For some, these distractions include reading emails or reading a notification they have received on their phone, for others it’s checking what their friends are doing on Facebook or Instagram for example. Our attention span runs between 10-20 minutes, so it’s easy to understand how one will quickly drift off from the task in hand.
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Eliminate Distractions
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While it may sound obvious, people often underestimate just how many distractions prevent them from concentrating on the task at hand. Such intrusions might come in the form of a radio blaring in the background or perhaps an obnoxious co-worker who constantly drops by your cubicle to chat.
Minimizing these sources of distraction isn’t always as easy as it sounds. While it might be as simple as turning off the television or radio, you might find it much more challenging to deal with an interrupting co-worker, spouse, child, or roommate.
One way to deal with this is to set aside a specific time and place and request to be left alone for that period of time. Another alternative is to seek out a calm location where you know you will be able to work undisturbed. The library, a private room in your house, or even a quiet coffee shop might all be good spots to try.
A few strategies you might want to try to minimize or eliminate such internal distractions are to make sure you are well-rested prior to the task and to use positive thoughts and imagery to fight off anxiety and worry. If you find your mind wandering toward distracting thoughts, consciously bring your focus back to the task at hand.
Limit Your Focus
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While multitasking may seem like a great way to get a lot done quickly, it turns out that people are actually rather bad at it. Juggling multiple tasks at once can dramatically cut down on productivity and makes it much harder to hone in on the details that are truly important.
Think of your attention as a spotlight. If you shine that spotlight on one particular area, you can see things very clearly. If you were to try to spread that same amount of light across a large dark room, you might instead only glimpse the shadowy outlines.
Be the boss of your time
Many don’t see it, but our time is controlled by others for most of the day. Controlling your time is key to getting the work you need done. For example, notifications come in when someone ELSE sends them. This usually leads to stopping what we were doing, reading them, thinking about them, replying and so on.
Such notifications take our focus away from the task at hand. E-mails are just as bad. It has been reported that 23% of all work distractions come from emails. Seeing the operating system’s notification of “You’ve got mail” or a WhatsApp notification on our phone, takes us out of our “zone” and into someone else’s “schedule”.
- Monotask, do not multitask. This means you work on one thing at a time. This will give you better control over your task and will reduce losing focus while jumping between tasks For example, even if you get a text message you need to ignore it and focus on the one task you are currently working on, and remember you don’t start anything else till that task is done (even not replying to a message).
- We all want to reply to that message or mail we just received. Someone on the other side of it is waiting for something! Remember that not too long ago we didn’t have mobile phones, and e-mail was not in our pocket, easily accessible. The senders can wait a bit. To make it easier for you mentally, take planned breaks. The Pomodoro method states one should work for a set time (25 minutes is usually suggested) and then take a 5 minute break. During the 25 minute of work time you don’t reply to anyone (and preferably don’t check your phone or mail) and during the 5 minute break time you can reply to anyone you want, send messages or simply relax and clear your mind to help increase your focus while you are in the 25 minute work period. Focus booster phrased it nicely “By managing distractions to your advantage, you perform better, and the absolute worst that can happen is you might return a call, email or message 25 minutes later.”
Set up your work environment
- The first step in setting up an environment where you can focus while you work or study is to find a quiet area in the house, office or any other working space. If that is not possible then make sure you have good headphones to block out the noise (a few tips about what you can listen to discussed later). Make sure that if you do use headphones that they are (1) over-ear or noise cancelling as those will help you block out as much sound as possible, and (2) that they are visible to others. The idea behind the latter is to make sure people are aware you are working and are trying to stay focused.
- Once you have found your space and/or headphones you need to set it up. Start by clearing out unrelated papers, mail and such. Whether you work with a block of paper or a laptop, verify you have enough space for it in your work area. Make sure you have everything you need to work and stay focused on your goals. Get yourself a drink and a snack so you don’t have any excuses to leave the area while you are working.. If you plan to use the pomodoro technique we suggested that you don’t forget to have a timer or download a chrome extension like BlockSite and use their work mode as your timer. Work mode will not only alert you to when the work session is over, but it will also count down your break so you are able to know when it is time to put the phone down and start working again. You can set certain sites to block while you work too, that can only be accessed during your break.
- If you work in a public place like a coffee shop (which we don’t recommend as there are many distractions you cannot control there), try to not connect to the WiFi if possible. That way at least on your laptop you will have a tougher time losing focus to other, less relevant things.
How To Focus at Work Easily?
1. Know Your Triggers
The likelihood of being distracted is directly related to the amount of pull something is having on our attention. So, increased self-observation and deep introspection will help you to identify boundary cues.
Set Boundaries
Learning how to set boundaries is essential in limiting disruptions and distractions in your life. Healthy boundaries give you the room to do what you want to focus on. It serves as the framework to focus your efforts and harness your energy enabling you to do your best work.
Stand Firm
Often, our inability to set boundaries results from our fear of offending those around us. But frankly, you have little to no obligation beyond your own guilt to be immediately available to everyone all the time.
2. Eliminate Digital Distractions
3. Make Your Computer Distraction-Free
This is very important for people who always work on their computers. Put in just one folder all files related to each project or task. Then ensure your computer is always virus-free to saved you the hassle of checks and repairs. Instances such as these cause stress and will wane your interest to finish the tasks.
4. Methodically Schedule Each Day
The time-blocking (also known as time boxing) approach will hold you accountable by allocating specific periods for specific types of work. Dividing your workday into blocks and assigning activities to each one allows you to prioritize what’s most important.
There are different time-boxing methods such as Day-theming. Day-theming is dedicating each day of the week to a specific theme instead of switching between different types of work or areas of responsibility throughout the day. This strategy is not about scheduling a perfect day. It’s really about giving structure to your workday by forcing you to be more intentional with your time.
5. Make a Daily “To-Do” List and Keep It Nearby
6. Prioritize Tasks
One of the ultimate tips in how to focus at work is to put the taxing and difficult task on your agenda during the first hour. Follow these with the less pressing work, and then end with those routine tasks that you find boring.
7. Monotask
8. Chunking Tasks
While we might not be able to multitask, we can do two activities simultaneously if they use different parts of our brain. That’s why we can drive and listen to podcasts at the same time and keep control of our cars—driving has become internalized. Watching TV while doing your exercise routine is another prime example.
While chunking doesn’t qualify as something that will increase focus, what it does is free up time that we can use for other tasks. Good time management means having the ability to do more. When we have so much on our plate, getting through it all can be daunting. But by chunking activities, we kill two birds with one stone.
9. Set Deadlines
Say you’re told to finish a project by next Tuesday. Most people will get it done by next Tuesday. Unlike school where we have the eager beavers, as adults, we have so much on our plate so we put off things that do not need our immediate attention. So, if you want to increase focus, simply bring in the time frame.
10. Let Others Know of Your Strict Personal Policies
11. Be Unreachable, Busy, Away…Or “Invisible”
Not all calls are about your apartment being burglarized, or a loved one being in precarious situation. So turn off your mobile phone to silent mode during hours where you really need all attention on your work. You can also opt to activate the voicemail service.
As for instant messaging, set the status to indicate you’re “busy” or stay “invisible” while you work so you can remain focused on a task. If you still get IMs, then just turn the notification or program off. Turn it on later when your current task isn’t as pressing.
12. Stay Away from the Social Media
There’s a strong tendency that you’ll stay much longer than planned because something new, interesting and perky always comes with most social networking sites. Not only will it defeat your purpose of staying focused at work, but there’s plenty of information there that could get your mind unnecessarily perturbed — like a friend’s status about her heartbreak, or someone from work getting a raise.
13. Organize Your Emails
Another really stressful and distracting activity is email. Depending on which company you work for and your specific role, there’s a strong possibility you’ll receive a steady stream of company emails daily.
One good way to avoid this is to have a separate email address for work and one for your personal email. Have them both powered to filter all emails. Once you have free time on hand, check emails again and unsubscribe from senders who you could live without. Then, organize the emails you’d attend to later. Delete the rest.
Authorship:
https://www.verywellmind.com/things-you-can-do-to-improve-your-mental-focus-4115389
https://blocksite.co/focused/
https://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/15-ways-to-stay-focused-at-work.html
Keep focus
When reviewing your huge to-do list, break it into three structured lists: daily, weekly, and monthly work. Next, organize these lists according to priorities, so that you know what needs to be done first. Each time you complete a task, cross it out on your list to see how much you’ve accomplished at the end of the day.
Strategies for developing organizational focus
I often think about how successful companies like Shopify, HootSuite, and Airbnb stay focused. These companies are all made up of smart, creative, and passionate teams (which are made up of smart, creative, and passionate individuals) who share common goals. They effectively communicate, collaborate, and align on priorities which lead to the creation of the products and services that we use in our daily lives.
But consider that at one point, each of these companies were made up of just a handful of individuals who each had their unique way of getting things done and could get those things done relatively quickly and without much friction. But then they began to scale, and had to get everyone in the company on the same page. How were they able to grow, while retaining the level of focus of a team of two? Perhaps you’re in this position yourself: hanging in the balance of what happens next, or figuring out how to lead your team to a place of focus.
Whether you’re managing a small creative team, a large division, or an entire company, developing organizational focus can be challenging, especially when faced with multiple competing deadlines and priorities. You might have a clearly defined mission, vision, and values; your goals and objectives could be crystal clear, but how do you get your team to consistently focus on them?
Focus on less
The ancient Chinese philosopher, Lao Tzu, said it best: “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Rather than trying to get everything done all at once, pick and choose your priorities carefully. Choose a handful of projects to work on that are mission critical. Apply the Pareto Principle: focus on the 20% of your work that will generate 80% of results.
“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.” – Steve Jobs
One mistake I’ve often seen teams make is biting off more than they can chew. When faced with a mountain of to-do’s, it can be paralyzing to consider the full scope of work ahead of you. It can scatter everyone’s attention. But when your team has just a handful of goals, it becomes easier to focus.
Be the boss of your time
Many don’t see it, but our time is controlled by others for most of the day. Controlling your time is key to getting the work you need done. For example, notifications come in when someone ELSE sends them. This usually leads to stopping what we were doing, reading them, thinking about them, replying and so on.
Such notifications take our focus away from the task at hand. E-mails are just as bad. It has been reported that 23% of all work distractions come from emails. Seeing the operating system’s notification of “You’ve got mail” or a WhatsApp notification on our phone, takes us out of our “zone” and into someone else’s “schedule”.
- Monotask, do not multitask. This means you work on one thing at a time. This will give you better control over your task and will reduce losing focus while jumping between tasks For example, even if you get a text message you need to ignore it and focus on the one task you are currently working on, and remember you don’t start anything else till that task is done (even not replying to a message).
- We all want to reply to that message or mail we just received. Someone on the other side of it is waiting for something! Remember that not too long ago we didn’t have mobile phones, and e-mail was not in our pocket, easily accessible. The senders can wait a bit. To make it easier for you mentally, take planned breaks. The Pomodoro method states one should work for a set time (25 minutes is usually suggested) and then take a 5 minute break. During the 25 minute of work time you don’t reply to anyone (and preferably don’t check your phone or mail) and during the 5 minute break time you can reply to anyone you want, send messages or simply relax and clear your mind to help increase your focus while you are in the 25 minute work period. Focus booster phrased it nicely “By managing distractions to your advantage, you perform better, and the absolute worst that can happen is you might return a call, email or message 25 minutes later.”
Set up your work environment
- The first step in setting up an environment where you can focus while you work or study is to find a quiet area in the house, office or any other working space. If that is not possible then make sure you have good headphones to block out the noise (a few tips about what you can listen to discussed later). Make sure that if you do use headphones that they are (1) over-ear or noise cancelling as those will help you block out as much sound as possible, and (2) that they are visible to others. The idea behind the latter is to make sure people are aware you are working and are trying to stay focused.
- Once you have found your space and/or headphones you need to set it up. Start by clearing out unrelated papers, mail and such. Whether you work with a block of paper or a laptop, verify you have enough space for it in your work area. Make sure you have everything you need to work and stay focused on your goals. Get yourself a drink and a snack so you don’t have any excuses to leave the area while you are working.. If you plan to use the pomodoro technique we suggested that you don’t forget to have a timer or download a chrome extension like BlockSite and use their work mode as your timer. Work mode will not only alert you to when the work session is over, but it will also count down your break so you are able to know when it is time to put the phone down and start working again. You can set certain sites to block while you work too, that can only be accessed during your break.
- If you work in a public place like a coffee shop (which we don’t recommend as there are many distractions you cannot control there), try to not connect to the WiFi if possible. That way at least on your laptop you will have a tougher time losing focus to other, less relevant things.
Block distracting websites
Working on full steam requires some planning. Schedule a 3-hour working zone each day and add it to your calendar. During this time, find a quiet place and tell other team members you’re not to be bothered with any requests. Explain nicely that you need those 3 hours to completely focus on your projects.
It’s impossible for everybody in the office to work in complete silence. It’s only natural that people need to discuss some important matters with each other. But all this babble can become tiresome pretty quickly.
The easiest way to block out distracting sounds is to listen to backgrounds sounds. For example, Noisli offers a great set of natural sounds that you can listen to while focusing. You can also try listening to music, but it might become just another distraction.
Less coffee, more water
It might seem counterintuitive to limit your coffee intake while working. After all, it’s supposed to equip you with extra energy. But there’s another side to the story – too much coffee can tire you out. Drinking too much caffeine may lead to dizziness and insomnia, making it even more difficult to focus.
We tend to start procrastinating when working without a purpose. That’s why it’s important to be excited about every single task you take up. Being constantly inspired in your work will also make you more optimistic about the outcome, making it easier to stay focused throughout the day.
Before you start to work on a difficult task, imagine what would improve after you’ve completed it. Maybe you can simply reduce your workload and stop stressing about the task. Or maybe there are far long-reaching benefits to tackling the task.
Authorship:
https://wavelength.asana.com/workstyle-developing-organizational-focus/
https://blocksite.co/focused/
https://www.scoro.com/blog/stay-focused-at-work/
Keep focus
Struggling to focus is a frustrating and layered problem that that affects everyone at some point. Whether you’re struggling to find motivation or having trouble prioritizing – chances are your lack of focus is pointing to something more complicated beneath the surface. Luckily, with a better understanding of our biology, behaviors, and a few practical techniques, we can begin to tackle our issues with concentration so that we can give our attention and focus to the things that matter most.
How to gain & keep focus for writing
Our ability to focus is a precious resource. And in this distracted world, it’s becoming increasingly rare. There are too many things pulling at our attention: too many articles to read, too many talks and seminars, too many topics to think about… But as scientists, we need to concentrate deeply to advance our research — and to write up our findings clearly and effectively. So what can you do when your mind refuses to settle in and focus on the work at hand? Below you will find a tried and proven *minimal* approach how you can gain focus — and keep it throughout the day.
Yesterday was not a productive day for me. In the morning I sat down at my desk, and instead of writing an article I started to reply to emails, look up random things on the internet, then cleaned something in the kitchen, chatted with some friends on social media, ate a snack, discovered some new emails and got new ideas that needed to be checked online…
I was going in circles like this almost the whole day. Many times I opened the empty document intended for my article… but could not force myself to actually write anything. I did not have a clear picture of what exactly I was going to write, I did not know how to start — and I could not focus and cut through the brain fog.
I was surprised by this state — I haven’t had a bad day like this in ages. After lunch I sat down to meditate, to clear my head and get it under my control. As I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate on my breath, a thousand pictures and words were jumping on me from all sides.
And I understood what was the problem: the day before I spent the whole evening on the couch, “binge consuming” news & social media. Then, as I woke up in the morning, I automatically grabbed my phone and before I knew it, it was an hour later. And all these images, words, and emotions got stuck in my head, spinning in the background, and luring me from my demanding work into shiny worlds of distraction.
This is usually not a problem for easy tasks (which don’t require your full concentration) or exciting tasks (which engage your full attention easily). During my PhD, for example, I could format my manuscript according to journal guidelines or program and run simulations even when I was spending my mornings (and lunch breaks) on news & social media sites.
However, (scientific) writing is different. It requires your full attention, as you are juggling your ideas, searching for the right words, and trying to guess whether your readers will understand what you mean. (Not to mention the troubles when you try to improve your text as you write it.)
What is Focus and Attention? How Does it Work?
Not all focus is created equal. When you think of the concept, you’re probably thinking of an intentional choice. If you planned to practice guitar today, you focus by sitting down and doing it. Researchers describe this type of action as “top-down.” Top-down selective attention is intentional, goal-driven, and probably how you’d like to spend more of your time each day.
But there’s also another kind of focus. “Bottom-up” selective attention is your brain’s response to stimuli. These stimuli can be external, like reaching for your iPhone when a notification dings, or internal, like finding your thoughts wander to that delicious Chinese restaurant across the street when your stomach is rumbling.
Unlike top-down attention, bottom-up attention is involuntary, which is why it can be so annoying at times. It’s easy to label these unwanted interruptions as distractions—but they’re really just focus of a different kind.
Less coffee, more water
It might seem counterintuitive to limit your coffee intake while working. After all, it’s supposed to equip you with extra energy. But there’s another side to the story – too much coffee can tire you out. Drinking too much caffeine may lead to dizziness and insomnia, making it even more difficult to focus.
We tend to start procrastinating when working without a purpose. That’s why it’s important to be excited about every single task you take up. Being constantly inspired in your work will also make you more optimistic about the outcome, making it easier to stay focused throughout the day.
Before you start to work on a difficult task, imagine what would improve after you’ve completed it. Maybe you can simply reduce your workload and stop stressing about the task. Or maybe there are far long-reaching benefits to tackling the task.
Authorship:
https://writingscientist.com/focus/
https://freedom.to/blog/why-cant-i-focus-8-reasons-and-solutions-for-the-distracted-brain/
https://www.scoro.com/blog/stay-focused-at-work/