How do you stay focused at work? Do you have distraction problems at work? In today’s distraction-filled world, there are unlimited sources of distractions in the workplace to affect your concentration.
Just like many people, I also occasionally couldn’t stay focused at work. Sometimes, I was distracted by my smartphone and colleagues around me. Also, I would spend so much time focused on a simple task. In short, there are so many reasons that cause me to lose my concentration at work.
In fact, concentration is like a muscle that strengthens as you exercise it. In terms of this topic, I knew that there are so many articles to teach you how to concentrate at work. For instance, to limit online interruptions, to block social media sites, to schedule daily focus hours, to isolate yourself entirely from distractions and focus only on a single task, to take short breaks, etc. Obviously, those tips could boost your productivity and focus.
In this article, I’d like to share 2 tips to boost your focus at work dramatically and I have implemented them into my daily life.
Tip 1. Self-Discipline
Self-discipline is very important, not only to achieve success in your career but also your whole life. There are in fact, two sources of self-discipline in the workplace. I have summarized two useful methods here that can significantly improve your results.
Method 1. Prioritize Daily Working Plan
Without a doubt, there are always many assignments at hand. The first step before making a To-Do-List is to prioritize your daily working plan. Understandably, you may have heard this advice many times, but verifying the importance of tasks will help you prioritize your time most effectively. After structuring the daily working plan, you have to follow the plan and ensure that you can get into the flow of your work.
Method 2. Set The Deadline And Time Limit for Tasks
Before you get started on your To-Do-List, remember to set time limits for each single task. Simply place a limit on how long it should take you to complete a task. When doing so, you can feel a sense of urgency that will push your focus and motivation.
When you have a difficult task at hand, scheduling a meeting with your boss and team members to gather advice at the beginning will help the completion of the task sooner rather than later. It’s risky to not have enough time to provide a complete picture of the result before the meeting, but it can push you to sit down and focus within a shorter timeline.
Tips 2. Focus On What You Can Control
So far, there has been little discussion about the breakdown of the goals in the topic of staying focused at work. I personally believe that many of the skills in project management can be implemented in your daily life. The Breakdown Method is one that can give your professional and personal life, clarity.
Many daily tasks are overly complicated or we may lack motivation to start the task. The most efficient way to simplify the difficult targets is to break the task down to small parts. This will make it easier to control your behavior to complete these small parts from the beginning stage to completion.
In my experience, a leading cause of procrastination and disappointment in not achieving optimal success is overly complicated tasks and targets. For this reason, breaking the task into smaller parts will bring your target into focus. This will allow you to concentrate on what is in your control, pushing more immediate results to experience faster successes.
There is an interesting video at TEDxCrestmoorParkED by Reggie Rivers, the topic is “If you want to achieve your goals, don’t focus on them”.
If you’re focused on your goal, you’ll never achieve it. You have to focus on your behaviors. Behaviors are things that are in your control solely. ~ By Reggie Rivers
This seems to confirm the idea that most people havn’t focused on the small parts but rather they are concentrated on the large targets, so they always have distraction problems at work.
You control what you control. When you focus on the part that is in your control, which is your behaviors, you tend to achieve your goals ~ By Reggie Rivers
So, breaking the task into smaller parts helps create focus on what you can control and what is needed to complete the task, making it easier. Eventually you will reach your goal of hitting that difficult target.
Key Takeaway
From these arguments one can conclude that “self-discipline” and “focus on what you can control” are two constructive ways to concentrate your focus at work. In summary, you have to take the first step. Small steps every day will lead you to accomplish your goals.
原文轉載自Matt Lo