Perhaps every employee has had trouble focusing at some point in their working life. Their minds seem to wander off to different places they shouldn’t be until they lose track of time and get no tasks done. There are several factors that affect the mind’s ability to focus including sleep deprivation, distractions, stress, or even a chaotic environment.
Our ability to focus on a task until it is complete is a great indicator of our success. However, it is indeed hard to focus in a world full of distractions— among other things. Training your mind to be where it should be especially during working hours is no Herculean task; it is just a matter of maintaining and building good habits. Good thing there are effective ways to help your mind deal with such factors that are perpetually trying to disrupt your focus.
If your mind is in a constant battle between staying focus at work and idling, these proven tips could help you beat the latter and keep you focused at work.
1. Create a concrete schedule for your tasks
One of the major reasons why we lose focus at work is because we don’t have a proper plan. This causes our monkey mind to unchain itself and travel to unnecessary places. But when we have our schedule and tasks all sorted out, our mind pushes itself to work harder and complete our agenda.
Start by identifying your available time and high-priority tasks. Try to schedule your high-priority and urgent tasks the time you are most productive. For instance, some employees are most productive and energetic in the morning while some are in the afternoon. In this way, you can understand what you can realistically achieve with your time while achieving a good work-life balance.
2. Understand yourself
Each of us has our own strategies when it comes to habits and styles of work. Some work best when they work in one sitting while others prefer working in small intervals of time. It is important to understand yourself— how your body and brain work. Understanding yourself can help develop techniques to increase your attention span.
3. Take small breaks
When you can’t focus on a task anymore, it’s perhaps your mind is exhausted from all the tasks from the previous hours. Your mind needs a break too. Our brains are not designed to retain attention for long hours. It is highly recommended to take at least a 5-10 minute break whenever you feel like you have done enough and well and your mind needs a bit of that rest.
In a 2013 article from the New York Times, it is said that strategical renewal, including daytime workouts, short afternoon naps, and longer sleep hours boosts productivity and job performance.
4. Organize your table
Not only does your workspace reflect our habits and personality, but it also highly influences our productivity. If your table looks as though it got struck by a storm, chances are it would distract you and make you feel lost the entire day.
You might use a bit of your idle time to organize your files and other stuff. It takes a little time to clean and organize your workspace, but it can have a huge impact on your mood and will take your productivity to its optimum extent.
5. Don’t procrastinate
All of us have procrastinated at some point in our lives. Just like a credit card, procrastinating is all fun and games until you get the bill. The bad thing about procrastination is that it is perpetual; you can’t help but postpone your tasks for the next day until you are a few hours away from your deadline.
The best way to combat procrastination is through timeboxing. Timeboxing is a simple technique in which the idea is to allocate time to finish an activity within that time frame. You will likely finish your tasks when you set deadlines for yourself. For starters, you can reward yourself at the end of every task you have accomplished.
6. Don’t multitask
When you try to do two things (or more) at the same time, your brain lacks the capacity to perform the tasks successfully and efficiently. It slows down and decreases the quality of work. When you feel like you aren’t making successful progress in your projects, you tend to lose your interest which would gradually steal your focus from you.
Instead of multitasking, why not divide your tasks into a smaller time frame? In this way, you get to be more productive while rendering quality outputs.
7. Keep your phone away
Your phone is your biggest rival for your focus. With all those constant ringing, notifications, and messages from your friends, it tends to divert your attention from your workloads. Admit it or not, we always have this urge to pick up and check our phones every now and then. According to a survey, an average office employee wastes 56 minutes a day using their phones for non-work related reasons.
It is alright to use your phone during office hours occasionally or when something is urgent and needs a response as soon as possible. Other than that, keep your phone in your drawer or bag so that it won’t tempt you to check it for unworthy reasons.
8. Use applications
With the constant upgrade of technology, inventors have come up with various tools, mobile apps, and work management software that can help employees focus better. Such applications include Brain.fm, Headspace 2.0, and Concentrate to name a few. These apps can help you reclaim your brain and to prioritize the things that matter the most. You can always search the internet for the application that suits your taste best.
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