How to Focus and
Maximize Your Productivity (the Definitive Guide)
Until you know how to focus, you’ll never be able to think
clearly, solve problems, make decisions, or remember things. Being focused is
important but staying on a task is becoming harder and harder. A symphony of
notifications can draw you out of whatever you’re doing at a moment’s notice.
Every time your mind wanders from your work, you have to waste
time and energy getting back on track. A recent study from the University
of California calculated that it took people an average of 25 minutes and 26
seconds to get back to work after an interruption. This means that every
time something takes your attention off your work, you lose nearly half an hour
of your precious time.
Interruptions are bound to happen, but when they happen several
times per day, you’ll waste lots of time and energy. In this guide, you’ll
learn more about why it’s so hard to stay focused and what you can do to reduce
distractions, be more productive, and increase your focus.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. What makes staying focused difficult
Physically unfit
An emotional brain
Too many distractions
Multitasking through the day
2. How to find focus in a distracted world
Tricks to tackle distractions
Techniques to train a more focused mind
3.
A solid routine to stay focused
What makes
staying focused difficult
Physically
unfit
Everything is more difficult when you feel sick or tired. If you
haven’t been getting enough sleep, your mind is bound to wander.
Human bodies are meant to be in motion, but many of us lead
sedentary lifestyles. Not getting enough exercise is another common reason you
might lose focus quickly. Exercising helps your body regulate hormones and
process insulin. It also alleviates symptoms of depression and anxiety. A
British study found that people’s work performance was better on the days they
exercised:
What you eat and drink can play a major role in
your ability to settle into your work, too. Start by staying properly hydrated.
About 60% of your body is water. If you’re dehydrated you’re going to feel
sluggish, and your brain won’t be able to work as well.
Digestive upsets and imbalanced gut bacteria are disruptive no
matter what you’re doing. An upset digestive system is uncomfortable, but it
also prevents you from making use of all the nutrients in your food. This means
that even if you are eating well, you may not be getting the nutrition that
helps you focus.
For example, B Vitamins are essential for digestion and we
deplete them rapidly when exposed to stress. A lack of B Vitamins will almost
certainly leave you feeling foggy-headed.
An emotional
brain
You know how hard it can be to focus when you’re worried about
something else. Your limbic system, the epicenter for all your emotions and
memories, attaches feelings to everything. Based on a study conducted by
Bond University professor of management Cynthia Fisher, there are some common
emotions at work shown to shape performance:
The way you feel about your work can
destroy your productivity and focus if you have a negative point of view. It’s
worthwhile to take some time to get to know yourself so that you can figure out
what triggers emotional reactions and loss of focus.
One of the best things you can do is infuse your life with
positivity. When your work triggers positive emotions, you’ll be more
interested in what you’re doing, and it’ll be easier to stay on task.
Too many
distractions
We’re fortunate to have so much technology at our fingertips,
but these advances are a double-edged sword. As you work, phone calls, text
messages, emails, and social media notifications threaten to derail your focus.
A 2012 study from the McKinsey Global Institute found that
people spend around 13 hours or 28% of
their work-week managing emails. That’s not to say that all time spent on
technology is non-productive. It’s just that most of us have a hard time
compartmentalizing our inboxes and notifications so that they don’t pull us
from other tasks. As mentioned, it
takes a whopping 25 minutes and 26 seconds to regain focus on
average. Distractions are costly.
Multitasking
through the day
You may think you’re being more efficient when you multitask,
but only about 2% of the population can effectively multitask. James
Clear’s illustration has best described the myth of multitasking:
For the other 98%, they mutitask in three different ways:
- Do
two things at the same time.
- Switch
to a new task without completing the original thing they were working on.
- Rapidly
cycle back and forth between tasks, which gives the illusion that they are
among the 2% of effective multitaskers.
Human brains aren’t designed to do that kind of cognitive
shuffling. People end up with a nasty build up of “attention residue” when they
switch between tasks.
If you’ve ever been distracted by thinking about something else
you have to do while you’re working on another project, you’ve experienced the
effects of attention residue. Constantly shifting between tasks can cost you
about 40% or 16 hours of your workweek. That’s like tossing two days out of
every work-week in the trash.
Multitasking can cause you to perform as though you’ve lost
10-15 points on your IQ score. No matter how smart you are, that’s a
significant drop in your effectiveness. A study from the University of London
likened this to missing an entire night of sleep.
You’ll thrive if you can learn how to focus and carve out time
for deep work. You’ll need to create windows of time that are completely free
of distractions like emails if you want to be most effective.
How to find
focus in a distracted world
Tricks to
tackle distractions
1. Block out
time for uninterrupted work
Make sure you schedule important time for yourself where you can
focus on your tasks in uninterrupted silence. Let people know that you won’t be
responding unless absolutely necessary. Think of this as scheduling a meeting
with yourself and treat it the same as you would when scheduling a meeting with
others.
Put your status as “busy” on your messaging apps and shared
calendars. Wear headphones (even if you aren’t listening to anything) to make
yourself appear that you’re focusing on your work. Intentionally carving out
this block of time will help you focus and cause others to be more hesitant
about distracting you.
2. Email
batching
Emails can come into our inbox continuously through the day and
it’s tempting to respond to them as and when we receive them. Similar to
blocking out specific time for focus, carve out time to deal with emails in one
go.
Doing this will create more productivity and keep you in the
flow of dealing with emails one after the other. If you find you still get
distracted easily by every new email, you can install a Chrome extension
called Block Site which
allows you to stop Gmail notifications coming through at specific times.
3. Turn
technology from a distraction into a useful tool
These days, many people feel controlled by technology and their
phones to some extent so make use of the disabling options it gives you. Turn
off email alerts, app notifications, set your phone to go straight to voicemail
and even create auto-responses to incoming text messages.
There are also some really cool apps that encourage you to be
more productive and less distracted by your phone. Forrest is an app that rewards you
each time you focus well, motivating you in a fun way and encourages you to
leave your phone well alone.
4. Schedule a
distraction time
Just as important as scheduling focus time is scheduling distraction time.
A study conducted by the social networking company Draugiem
Group, found that regular breaks was the key to productivity. More
specifically, the most productive employees spent 52 minutes working followed
by a 17 minute break each time.
This is down to the brain’s ability to stay motivated – it just
can’t sustain long periods of focus and concentration. The average attention
span for an adult is between 15 and 40 minutes. After this, distractions become
more powerful and we become less motivated. So while taking a mental break
might seem unproductive, in the long run it makes the brain more efficient
towards a task.
Techniques to
train a more focused mind
5. Anticipate
your internal needs
You may think it’s the outside physical distractions that cause
us to be unproductive but actually 44% of distractions are also internal. Think
about it – hunger, boredom, stress and lack of sleep have probably played a
part in your demotivation many times.
The good news is, you can control these factors by understanding
your patterns and planning ahead. Do you always feel sleepy late-afternoon?
Does the hunger set in around 11am? Do you start to get bored towards the end
of the day? Taking note of these patterns and counteracting them is a brilliant
way to become less distracted by them.
Mix up your tasks so you alternate the boring and interesting
ones more frequently. Keep a snack close when you know your stomach starts to
rumble. Go for a quick run up and down the stairs to perk you up.
6. Practice
mindfulness
Mindfulness
trains your mind to identify thoughts that arise throughout your day. When it
comes to distraction, understanding and noticing these moments can help you
deal with them more quickly and increase your attention span.
Meditation and mindfulness practice can be done at any time.
While you eat your food, notice the taste, texture and how it looks and feels.
When reading, really take in every word or while out walking notice how your
body feels and the details of your surroundings. Doing this on a regular basis
will eventually train your mind when it comes to other areas where distracting
thoughts pop up like a work task.
7. Exercise
regularly
Not only is exercise good for the body but it’s also good for the brain. Physical exercise fires up the neurons in the brain making you more
alert and willing to concentrate. This means it increases your ability to
ignore distractions and get on with the task at hand.
You can do an exercise routine in the morning
and head straight into work making sure your block of focus time is carved out
first thing. You’ll be surprised at how much motivation you have and how much
you get done. If you think you’re too busy to do any exercises, here’s how to find time for exercises.
8. Create a
willpower workout
Just like your muscles need a workout, so does your willpower in
order to build up its strength.
Setting daily self-control habits can train our mind in the art
of control in many other areas. In the book Willpower by John
Tierny and Roy Baumeister, Tierny cites a study in which students were asked to
watch their posture for a week. At the end of that week, these students
performed better on self-control tasks (tasks that were unrelated to sitting up
straight) than another group who weren’t asked to be mindful of their posture.
A good willpower practice is to watch the way you speak. Make an
effort not to use contractions i.e. try saying ‘I am’ instead of ‘I’m’. Speak
in complete sentences and refrain from saying ‘nah’ instead of ‘no’ or ‘yeah’
instead of ‘yes’.
Alternatively, try using your opposite hand in tasks. The aim is
to get your brain used to mental effort and the more it uses mental effort, the
more it builds up your willpower muscle.
A solid routine
to stay focused
You don’t have
to wonder how to focus if you set a routine. Having excellent habits leads to a
productive routine that saves you tons of time and helps you focus.
Finding and adopting the right daily routine will help you
regain wasted time. Your mind and body will thank you for the decreased anxiety
and your productivity will be super-boosted.
Now you know why it’s hard to stay focused and what steps you
can take to stay on-task.
Start by addressing your physical health and emotional needs.
Identify what’s distracting you and compartmentalize tasks like managing email
to specific times in your day. If you’re a chronic multi-tasker, it’s time to
hang up that hat and focus on one thing at a time.
Above all, develop productive habits that lead to efficient
routines so that deep focus becomes the norm for you. You have all the tools
you need to figure out how to focus on the things that matter most to you. It’s
time to give your work your undivided attention.
Leon Ho
https://www.lifehack.org/680976/how-to-focus-and-maximize-your-productivity-the-definitive-guide?ck_subscriber_id=168781672
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