You know what you have to do and how to get it done. If you could just stay with it, it would be done in no time. Don’t worry, it’s not just you. It happens to almost everyone from time to time that you just lose focus and can’t stay on task. The following tips have helped some of our customers.
1. make a “work only” place
What does it mean? Define a quiet and cozy place in your home as a workspace. This can be a table in the living room, the bar table in the kitchen, the dining table, a reading chair in the hallway or a bedside table. The only thing that matters is that this place has these characteristics in the best case:
- you do not stay there all the time
- you will not be strongly disturbed there
- in this place there are not many electronic devices that can distract you
- you can sit there on a comfortable chair and sit on it for a long time
So you can make it a routine to work there and so you can associate the place with the activity. This will help you to focus more on work in the long run.
2. assign tasks to a time
Probably the most important step in planning that is far too often forgotten: Namely, combining time planning and task planning. If you schedule tasks, you have a great guide through the day, so that you always know what is currently pending and how long you should take for your tasks. Don’t forget to include buffer times!
This day planner has been designed exactly for this purpose:
3. define goals and thus make decisions more quickly
Do you regularly engage with your short-term and long-term goals?
You should definitely do this. By setting monthly, weekly or even daily goals, it will be easier for you to make decisions. It would also be important to repeat these goals over and over again, if they are only noted down at longer intervals. Then you can always ask yourself these questions:
- Will this decision bring me closer to my goals?
- Will this decision negatively impact my goals?
4. do small tasks when you have little time and big ones when you have more time.
Sounds logical, doesn’t it? Basically, it is always best to do small and short tasks immediately. However, this can lead to the fact that one interrupts the big main task again and again with small things.
So to avoid this, you can collect smaller to-dos and then do them when you have a time window that is too small for big tasks. This way, you use short periods of time effectively and can stay in flow with big tasks.
5. choose the right music to work to.
Songs with a lot of singing may be great for dancing or relaxing, but for focused work you should leave them alone. Subconsciously, you’ll always be a little preoccupied with the song and the voices instead of your work. Better choose a playlist with songs without vocals.
There are many Focus Playlists. By the way, we also have a new playlist that is perfect for this.
Here are three tips from us:
- White Noise Generator: Mix natural sounds the way you like them.
- Writing only! This website wants to help you focus with minimalistic user interface without buttons. Simple and effective:
6. block access to distracting websites during your focus phases
With different apps like https://freedom.to/ for example, you can block certain websites for a period of time defined by you. When you’re working on the computer, it’s far too easy to get distracted. You have every conceivable entertainment option just a few keystrokes away.
Of course, it is important that you also install such an app on your smartphone or put it away for the time being, otherwise this measure won’t help much.
7. provide yourself with drinks
Drinking enough water is important for concentration. Make sure there’s enough of it on your desk so you don’t get interrupted in your work flow and have to get a drink.
8. set yourself deadlines and time limits
It’s probably happened to you before: You have a whole day of extra time and think how much you could get done today. And at the end of the day, you realize that you’ve wasted a lot of time and weren’t productive at all.
Time pressure (in the right measure!) is very important to increase productivity and focus. For example, you have a whole morning for a task. Then set yourself the limit to complete this task by 10:00 instead of filling the entire morning with many interruptions.
9. keep your workplace clean
Keeping focus also means feeling comfortable and continuing to spend time doing something. The cleaner the workplace and the more pleasant the general working atmosphere, the easier it is to stay on task and not get distracted all the time.
Also, if you find something quickly on your workstation, you minimize interruption time here too and are more likely to stay in the workflow.
10. work analog – as often as possible
With new technologies came most of the distractions. So why not just go back to analog work?
Sure, that’s not always possible. But when you’re doing certain tasks like brainstorming, planning, studying, or taking notes, try to do it on paper and without a computer. This digital detox not only promotes focus, but can also be relaxing.
You will find in our store many products to increase your focus and improve your planning.
