Your sister messages you on Slack for your help on her project. Five new emails from clients pop up in the inbox. In the backdrop, somebody is talking about her kid going for an excursion. Can you concentrate on your work this way?
If you’re always troubled by the office natter and find it really difficult to focus on your task, you can hardly perform at your best. And things get literally annoying, right? You may wonder how people manage to stay focused all around the day while you simply struggle to get your job done.
Well, the answer is either they’ve undergone long practice or apply simple but smart tricks to get them through the day. Up next, you can find the answer to your question “How to remain focused at your workplace?”
Go with the flow – Don’t just blame it on others – take a minute and evaluate your productivity. Now think for a while for how you can improve it. Make sure you’re in the flow while working on your assignments. Flow is nothing but a state of mind where you feel in total pursuit, perform your work easily and reach the peak of your performance. To go with the flow, try to feel energized about the work in hand and put all your energy and effort to work on that single thing only. Another good trick to focus on your job is to wait until the deadline is looming. The sense of urgency and pressure may put your mind to perform more effectively.
Make a plan and go methodically through it – Before you start working every day, make a list of 3 to 4 most important things that you must accomplish by the end of that day. Find a suitable planning method – whether you should go for prioritized to-do lists or hourly schedule. Include your recession time to the method as a brain can’t work 8 hours continuously – it needs breaks to recover and thus be more effectively productive. It would be even better to emphasize on your hourly schedule. An hourly work plan has several different benefits.
- You know exactly what you need to complete by the end of that day
- You set practical expectations to the day because you know how much time it needs to complete each assignment
- You know exactly what you have to do after completion of one task
- You may prioritize your tasks and work accordingly.
Jot down your ideas – You may have so many ideas in your mind while executing a task. Some days, you may be overwhelmed with fresh and innovative thoughts that you can’t accomplish. So it would be better to take a pen and a paper (don’t open a word file on your computer; revisit the relics of pen and paper age) and note down all the ideas as and when they cross your mind. Let it go for the while and get back to it later. As you know, writers never edit or change their words while writing but they definitely return to it later. By letting go and being focused on a single work at a time would make you do much more work in less time.
Set your own deadline – If you don’t feel any pressure to complete a work, you’re very likely to procrastinate on it. So set your own deadlines for all the assignments in hand in your daily to-do list. This way you can create a good sense of urgency that makes it easier for you to go along the flow and concentrate on important tasks. In addition to that, having set deadlines helps to battle the inner perfectionist. It’s better to work on an assignment until you can make it great than getting stuck on details.
Block out noise – It’s just impossible for you while in the office to work in a completely silent ambience. It’s quite natural that people would talk on different matters with each other. But those small babbles become irritating quickly. The simplest way to block out such disturbing sounds is to listen to some good and refreshing sounds like a light music. However, for some people, this can become another form of distraction.
Turn off notifications – It would be difficult for you to concentrate on a task until you make yourself free from small but cunning distractions called notifications. Quit tapping on your mobile phone. Just go to the settings and turn of all notifications for Facebook messengers, emails, WhatsApp messages and other unrelated apps that keep sending notifications. Habit of checking your phone to see if anybody tried to reach you is good but avoid doing this as frequently as it can distract you. Avoid staying in touch with social media while you’re working.
Go slow – You have miles to go. The most significant impediment to your core productivity is idealistic expectations. This is mostly an outcome of having guilt over not having been prolific lately. For example, if you’ve been on a vacation for a week, don’t cram in every task you ‘have to’ do. Keep working on your tasks one at a time after returning back from your vacation and everything will be alright.
Now turn on these techniques and others if you have some in your mind and stay focused at your job.
AARON SEARS is a passionate, veteran blogger. He loves sharing his knowledge and experience that he has gathered by interacting with people for years through his blogs. To read more of his tips and hacks on life please visit – www.stackofhacks.com