How to stay focused in a world full of distractions
Learning how to stay focused through the ups and downs of each day is critical to your achieving success. Why? Because distraction is all around you. Lurking behind every corner is a time-waster waiting for you to give in. To ruin an otherwise productive day and derail your progress. Here are some tips that could help:
Practice keeping commitments to yourself
All problems come from the relationship you have with yourself. You not keeping commitments you make to yourself has everything to do with you and your mindset. Training yourself to stay focused on what’s important to you starts with keeping commitments to yourself. You don’t flake on your best friend. So don’t flake on yourself.
You have to keep in mind that if you are a “professional procrastinator” it might be very difficult to start doing this. So start small. Don’t promise yourself a one-hour workout, start with a really small thing as drinking a glass of water in the morning or a five-minute meditation. It will be enough to start practicing. Put your plans on your calendar and honor it. Just like any other skill you can learn to do this with practice.
Evaluate where you’re spending your time
If you get to the end of the day feeling like you’ve been working non-stop, but you’ve barely checked off anything on your to-do list, it’s time to start tracking where you’re spending your time. Grab a sheet of paper or start a note in your phone and write down every single thing you do during your day, noting the time you start and the time you stop. Consider which tasks are taking more time than they should, wherein your day you tend to lose focus, and then make adjustments to avoid distractions and tasks that aren’t really adding value.
Be realistic about how much work you can get done
It may take a little while to grasp how long everything takes and where you need more space in your schedule, but it is definitely better to spend time on this than to continue scrambling to finish things at the end of the week.
Make it part of your routine
Schedule your weekly tasks at the same time and on the same days each week. Or if applicable do this on a daily basis. For example: create content on Mondays, schedule all your meetings on Tuesdays, spend Wednesdays on reading and learning and so on. By doing this, you will save time from prioritizing tasks and managing energy trough easy and hard tasks.
Implement supportive habits
Supportive habits are things like practicing gratitude, setting your workout clothes out the night before, packing your lunch ahead of time, or having dedicated time to plan each week. It’s easier to stay focused when you’ve put in some thought ahead of time to prepare.
Plan breaks and productivity rewards
We all already know how important breaks are but there is one more thing you could do to boost your productivity — plan your breaks. If you sit down to work with the idea of having a break at some point in your mind, you will easily lose motivation. Make it clear when you will have a break, for how long, what you are going to do during this time and what will be your productivity reward.
For example: I plan to write this email in twenty minutes and then have a five minutes break to enjoy my snack.
Set alarms
Another thing that could distract you from your work, is when you have to repeatedly check the time to make sure you won’t be late for an upcoming task or important meeting. Set an alarm about 20–30 minutes before, so you can focus and be more present.
WIFI off
The internet has proven to be the toughest distraction “out there”. It is so easy to start browsing and so hard to stop. Just in a few minutes, you can go from making productive research for your project to watching a video of a cute dog. It will be best if you can turn off your WIFI but some tasks just require an internet connection and in these situations you have to think about a solution even before start working. For example, download an app or extension that will lock some of your favorite social media platforms, so you can work in peace.
Final thoughts
The key to staying focused is more than putting your phone across the room or taking breaks when working. It’s about knowing what’s most important to you in life, what you ultimately want to achieve, and setting goals to get you there. It’s being grateful for the positives in life and implementing supportive habits to keep you on track.
The sooner you realize this, the sooner you’ll be able to stay focused and intentional with your life.
Subscribe to our Newsletter to get the latest articles and educational materials from the business!
