7 Tips to Maintain Your Focus (and Protect Your Attention from Getting Hijacked)

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Ever felt like you were in slow motion while life passed you by?

Like you just can’t keep the momentum going?

You sit down to tackle some critical task. Look up, and can only gasp in horror when you see how much time has passed. And… how much you didn’t get done.

You get frustrated. Thinking about how much time and effort you put forth — but the results don’t speak for themselves.

In fact you even start wondering if maybe you’re aiming too high. That there’s just not enough time in the day to get what you want done. But that’s not the whole of it.

Time isn’t slipping through your fingers here. Your attention wasn’t fully there. You started strong. Fully intending to get what you wanted done. But somewhere along the way you got distracted.

The scariest part is that you might not even be consciously aware of when that happened. Almost like there’s someone else living in your brain and calling the shots.

As terrifying as that is — it’s actually true.

You do have another “self” that takes over. This part of you is called the Default Mode Network. It’s what helps us function when we’re not paying attention or focused.

However this is a double edged sword.

While Your Default Mode Network helps you to function (e.g. driving home without thinking about it), it’s been programmed by everything you’ve ever experienced, thought or felt. And I mean everything.

Even the beliefs and behaviors that don’t serve you. Or even pull you away from your goals and dreams. It’s your autopilot.

And if your autopilot isn’t programmed for you to succeed. That’s when you get thrown off track. And why it happens again and again. Underneath your notice to boot.

Reprogramming your Default Mode Network takes time. Luckily we can activate another part of our brain to override this: The Executive Network.

This part of our brain comes online when we set intentions and focus on getting them done.

Now you might be wondering, “Well why the heck isn’t it already working for me? I have goals and intentions I’m working on right now!?”

The thing is, your Executive Network is only as strong as your ability to pay attention. Maintaining your focus for long periods of time isn’t easy.

However, I’m going to share 7 tips to help you create a container to maintain your focus. So you can keep your attention on your priorities — without getting distracted.

I’ll show you some practical tips to stop your attention from getting hijacked. So you can start and stay strong on your tasks until you get them done!

#1 Know Your Destination

I put this a #1 for a reason. If you don’t have super clear goals — distraction is going to eat you alive.

Remember that the ONLY way we can override our Default Mode Network, is by engaging the Executive Network. Meaning without clarity and a concrete plan — you’re going to get nowhere fast!

There’s also a secondary reason for this. Getting results doesn’t just mean showing up and doing stuff. It means doing the right stuff. Having clear goals helps you identify the most critical tasks for your success.

You always want to focus on and tackle the most important priorities first. Because:

1. They likely take the most time, energy and effort to do. Which is not something you want to save until the end of the day (y’know when you’re tired and ready to chill).
2. Crossing the big stuff off your list early also boosts your mood. Giving you more motivation to show up for the next time.

Let me give you an example of how clear goals help you prioritize and focus.

I’m currently taking an AI book writing course. And have been doing it along with my content marketing course first thing in the morning. Cue today where my morning fell apart, and I didn’t have time to get everything I needed done.

Did I panic? Nope! I knew that this AI book writing course is definitely part of my plans. But it’s not something urgent — like my writing course. Because it doesn’t take priority over my current writing goals.

Because I didn’t have to spend time weighing the pros and cons of one course over the other. I quickly shifted gears, made a note to pursue the AI course later, and got my objectives for writing done.

Bottomline: Clear goals = clear decision making. Clear decision making means more attention bandwidth for your goals.

#2 Become a (Temporary) Hermit

Eliminate distractions like it’s time for spring cleaning. And I don’t just mean the obvious ones like your phone/tablet. But you want to literally create your container for getting things done. ZERO distractions.

Meaning people that distract you get the boot too. The world won’t stop turning if you take an hour or two for yourself. If it doesn’t — whelp it won’t been an issue for long~

So — the two biggest distractions are usually going to be tech and people.

Tech: Shutdown unnecessary tabs for your tasks at hand. Keep things like your phone / tablet out of your line of sight. (I keep my phone under my portable keyboard cover. I know it’s there — but it can’t tempt me if I cannot see it!) Lastly, put everything on silent mode.

Unless there is an ongoing urgent situation you have to be on call for — just go on silent during your focus time.

People: if you have to, lock yourself in a room. You have to defend your time like a knight defending a castle. If you don’t, no one else will. And then you’ll be back to square one. Nothing getting done!

I know not everyone has the luxury of a space with a door. Maybe you frequent co-working spaces, or there’s no space at your job/house. So if you’re really pressed for finding a quiet place — technology can save the day.

A pair of noise canceling headphones and some white noise / voiceless background music can work in a pinch. I love using the free app Insight Timer as both a time tracker, and to help me zone out into focus.

Block out external distractions and watch your productivity soar!

#3 Rehearse Tomorrow Today

The night before, set your top 3 priorities for the next day — and write them down.

Let me repeat that.

Write. Them. Down.

There are too many self help / personal development books, courses and teachers out there that say this. Why? Because it works!

When you start the next day fully clear on what you’re going to do, you eliminate chances of going on autopilot from decision fatigue (when you make too many choices and deplete your willpower).

I know this might seem like a hassle, but writing things down helps to program your subconscious mind. Which helps to start programming your autopilot to work for you instead of against you. Making it more likely that you’ll show up and stick to your intentions.

I myself have been doing this since 2020 — and can say it has made a huge difference in staying focused. Plus it helps me quickly coordinate my day (next step). Which lessens decision fatigue as well.

Also visualize your goals daily (multiple times where possible). Like writing things down, visualizing also programs your subconscious mind.

Visualization is pretty simple too. It’s like music class — remember sight reading? Playing the notes in your head while you pretended to play your instrument?

It’s the same concept — except it’s all in your head. Just imagine yourself doing the things you want to get done, and how that makes you feel to get started.

Use reminders like post its, journal, affirmations, whiteboard, etc. These types of tools reinforce your visualization activities. The more you see your goals, the more you reinforce your brain’s ability to and desire to pay attention to them.

#4 Stick to the Script

A critical step to maintaining focus is coordinating your day. Meaning that you take those top 3 priorities. (Remember the ones you wrote down the night before — right? ;-D) Then break them down into actions so small — you can’t not do them. Seriously.

I’m talking about stuff like “open my laptop”, “take the vitamin”, “call X person”. Why? Breaking your priorities into micro tasks (something you get done in one shot), avoids decision fatigue. Plus when they’re this small — it’s easy to be disciplined and just do them.

This is a common trick that many coaches use, and something that James Clear talks about in his book Atomic Habits. Doing micro tasks over time helps you build habits. Meaning you can tackle and stick to bigger things. Because micro tasks also program your autopilot!

Here’s an example of my priority of writing a post for Medium broken down into micro tasks:

1. Open my laptop
2. Open google drive
3. Create new article document and title with today’s date
4. Decide prompt
5. 30 minute writing meditation — all flow, no editing just pure writing
6. 15 minute editing — add photos, spell check, references, spruce up, links, etc.
7. Open Medium
8. Add title, tags
9. Final check and post

Simple. I don’t have to think about what to do — just check one thing off after the other. Saving my mental bandwidth.

Another way to stick to the script is by leveraging different focus techniques. One of my favorites is blocking time.

Blocking time helps you to keep your focus. Because you know you only have X amount of time to get your priority done. When the time is gone, so is your opportunity to move ahead. Making your priorities urgent, and more likely to hold your attention.

So common time blocking methods are the pomodoro technique, or working 90 minutes / resting 15 minutes.

I prefer working in batches of 50 minutes with a 10 minute rest. Do what works for you, and experiment to see what does. Insight Timer from above is great for building a custom timer!

#5 Hold Yourself Accountable

Skip the “Did I do what I said I was going to do?” question. And replace that with “AM I doing what I said I would do?”

Our brain’s autopilot can be subtle like a ninja. You can fall off track without a second thought. Only realizing after the fact — when you’ve run out of time.

The trick here is to pay attention early and often. So you can catch yourself in the act of distraction quickly and course correct.

This is where those micro tasks are going to save the day!

Writing down your priorities the night before. Coordinating your day by breaking those priorities down first thing in the morning. Once you check off all your micro tasks — that means your priorities are done too!

Again eliminating the risk of going on autopilot. While helping you see real-time if you are getting things done — or if you need to tweak something.

Tracking your progress not only holds you accountable, but also reprograms your autopilot in your favor. The motivational brain chemical, dopamine, fires off every time you check something off. Which will make it easier to maintain your focus in the long run.

#6 Soothe ‘Ya Nerves

Now let’s talk about stress. The devourer of time. Nothing can hijack your attention faster than stress. Whether it’s something urgent, an energy drain or something that puts you in a bad mood. Just like with decision fatigue — too much stress can put you on autopilot.

Dr. Amishi Jha illustrates this with the concept of “Conflict States” in her book Peak Mind. She describes how the four conflict states: Resistance, doubts, restlessness and cravings can throw our attention for a loop.

Because every time we go into a “Conflict State” our attention gets pulled. Until it’s gone! Then you are at the mercy of your autopilot — and we already know how that goes.

Listen — you are going to get and face stress. It’s inevitable. So what can you do? There’s a few practical actions that can help lessen the impact of stressors (internal or external)

Practicing mindfulness is a great way to get started. It’s an all around great way to center yourself if things get hectic. That way you can refocus yourself early and quickly. There are plenty of apps out there, but I enjoy John Assaraf’s AIA reset. Which you can read more about in his book Innercise.

I’ll give a brief summary of the process. AIA stands for Awareness, Intention & Action.

Awareness:— When you find yourself distracted. Pause, and take 6 deep belly breaths in through your nose, and out through your mouth. This gives you a reset — pulling you out of stress, and back into the present moment — where you can act.

Intention — helps you to reset your mind on your priorities. If you did the steps above, you don’t even have to work hard for this! Just open your journal, note, app or wherever you keep your priorities and micro tasks.

Action — Do the thing! Again this is really easy to do when you do the above steps.

I love this method because it’s such a simple and quick practice. Doesn’t require years of mindfulness practice to benefit from it immediately. And you don’t need any tools to do it.

#7 Prime Yourself for Success

Many times on the quest for focus, we tend to put emphasis on the tasks. And completely forget about the fact that we are the ones doing the tasks.

If we aren’t in a good condition — it doesn’t matter how many of these tips you use. You won’t get very far in the short term. And likely fail to meet your goal in the long term.

What do I mean by good condition? I’m talking about your nutrition and sleep needs being met. A lack of literal energy will shuffle you off to autopilot-ville in a hot second. So you have to take care of yourself.

For example, I changed my eating habits to match my new routine. Before I would only eat twice a day, and would feel fatigue by the afternoon. But now that I start my day much earlier (4:30a) I have to eat earlier too.

Otherwise by the time the afternoon comes, I’m no good to myself. So learn what your body needs and give it to yourself

Secondly, get plenty of sleep. We all know sleep is critical to our health and vitality. But sometimes it’s hard to just lay down. Try to get 7.5 hours a night (that’s the general recommended amount).

However if that’s not possible, you can time your sleeping habits to what health coach Shawn Stevenson talks about in his book Sleep Smarter.

We tend to run through four stages of sleep in about 90-minutes intervals. These are what Shawn called sleep cycles. He recommended getting at least 4 cycles in every night (e.g. 6 hours of sleep).

But at the very least, try to time your patterns so you wake near the end of a cycle. This hack was a life saver for me in college!

My sleep lack was my own doing — not planning ahead, and thus having to cram late at night. I couldn’t keep my focus, and my sleep deficit was starting to affect my grades. I would time naps in sleep cycles. Then wake up refreshed and alert enough to get what I needed done.

Another thing that I learned to do was keep a consistent bedtime and waking time. This will also program you to be ready to start your day. Plus have the energy to stay focused on the things that matter.

Bonus Tip

One final tip to maintain your focus. Make it worth your while! It’s easy to get so hyper focused that we forget to enjoy ourselves in the process of reaching our dreams.

It’s hard to focus when you’re bored out of your mind!

Take time to celebrate your victories — no matter how big or small. This will again reprogram you to want to show up for goals. Diminishing the impact of internal stressors.

Lastly, choose “Done” over “Perfect” every time. Let yourself be messy — iterate as you go You’re going to miss things — it’s cool! Take the feedback, make some changes and come back stronger. This will keep you positive and grateful for your progress.

Don’t let your focus container become a burden to you. It should be a positive asset that helps you maintain your focus. And get the things that matter to you done.

You don’t have to keep putting up with this invisible conductor dictating your life.

No more frustration wondering where your day went. No more hours of effort going up in smoke with no results to show. And most importantly — keeping your attention on the things that matter most.

Just apply 1–3 of these tips, and you’ll see a rapid change in your ability to maintain your focus, and get stuff done. Giving yourself a huge boost in Momentum.

Now I mentioned in my article: #1 Secret to Achieve Your Goals (Even if You Feel Stuck or Unmotivated), that Focus is just one piece of the puzzle to start and maintain Momentum towards your goals.

Stay tuned for the next piece in the building momentum series: where you’ll learn about building bulletproof Habits.