Of course, we need to work on our ability to stay focused at work now. Most of us have an attention span that lasts about 15 seconds, thanks to Instagram reels and YouTube shorts. In this era of instant gratification, getting things done that require commitment of a massive amount of your time doesn’t come so naturally to everyone.
I challenge you to read the whole article word for word and finish it without getting distracted! 🙂
Even if you were to put your phone away, the number of distractions is just too many. You will be interrupted by calls or Constant chitchat by colleagues or emails, including those emails from HRD Or the clients that keep pinging you repeatedly when the deadline is still three days away.
There are a lot of people who can work through blazing horns and blowing trumpets, but unfortunately, I’m not one of them. I am the person who needs to sit down and create an environment to cut out the internal and external noise.
Even though I was always a good kid in class who did well in her class when I started working, it took me some time to realise that my usual way of just going about the task was not going to work.
1. Create your system to help you focus at work
Without actually sitting and cutting out the distraction, I was just delivering a very average work product because I just couldn’t focus.
So I took my time to devise a system that helped me to train myself to cut out the clutter from my mind and block the noise outside to ensure that every simple or complex task I did was up to the mark.
Following the system was not as easy as I thought. Initially, I would need to remind myself every 15 to 20 minutes to stop daydreaming or not pick up my phone, but as time went by I managed to create a habit and I followed the process without having to put in as much effort as before to focus on my work.
It has worked for me for over six years and I’m sure it’ll work for you too. Just follow the steps below!
2. Identify the distractions that keep you from staying focused at work
You need to know the problem to figure out how to tackle it. You need to find out what are the distractions that keep you from doing your best.
If you’re at work, it could be the constant blabbering of your colleagues that could be disturbing you. Similarly, if you’re working from home, it could be People ringing the doorbell time again or family members Just walking around. If so, maybe you’d also like to read about how to boost your productivity while working from home.
Suppose you’re working at a level in the organisation that does not require client interaction/management or team handling. In that case, your distractions are more likely to be internal – thinking about what to cook for dinner, and how to get to work the next day because the taxi drivers are on a strike.
On the other hand, if you are a manager, you would also have external distractions – some team members may need your guidance, and you may need to handle client calls, work on different matters during the day and manage a whole lot of things.
The next time you sit down to work, why don’t you take note of what is making you break your focus every time you find yourself getting distracted and how long is it keeping you distracted? Because the longer the interruption from work, the harder it is going to be to get back to it with the same enthusiasm.
3. Get rid of the distractions that disrupt your focus
Of course, you can resume the work despite getting distracted, but not only would the speed of work slow down but you tend to make more errors after the interruption.
Even if you were to pick up the same pace or try to make up for the lost time, you’d have to pay the price of being more stressed and getting frustrated because the work will take longer than you expected. Which, again might affect the quality of your work.
All of the above, if you manage to restart the work with the same rigour, it will take you about 23 minutes to get back to the task after being interrupted.
Depending on the distractions, you could:
- Change your workstation or go to the library if you work from home with too many distractions.
- Switch off your notifications on the phone and laptop for some time – I usually just put my phone away when I am doing complex tasks, and keep it on silent and upside down so I cannot see the notifications unless I pick it up.
- Plug in earphones and listen to some study/work music (without lyrics) to drown out the background noise – This is my go-to technique when I want to get some work done by the deadline.
- Change your high-volume work timings to when most people around you in the office are away from their desks or if you’re working from home, you could try and get your most complex tasks out of the way when the place is either empty or when everyone is asleep.
4. Do max work during the max energy period
Who doesn’t feel sleepy and slowed down immediately after lunch at work? Are you an early morning person or a night person?
The energy levels vary throughout the day, from person to person depending on your sleep schedule, age etc. Save the most complex tasks for when you know you will be working at maximum efficiency.
For me, I know I work best during the first two hours as I sit down to work so that is my max energy period. First thing in the morning, I pick up the tasks that will take the most amount of time and get as much as possible done.
During this time, block out all of the distractions around you to get maximum results. You could block your calendar to avoid calls from colleagues or clients and take a ‘notifications pause’ for all communication, including your work emails. Even if you get any emails or notifications during this period, tell yourself that you’ll get to it when convenient for you.
5. Use your distractions to refresh your mind
Distractions are not always bad! Studies have shown that if you’re doing simple, repetitive tasks, distractions can help you deliver better results.
On the other hand, if you’re doing a task that needs you to apply your mind, you’re only going to elongate the amount of time and effort it’s going to complete your work without errors.
6. Work on your energy levels
No matter how much time you put in, if you’re hungry or sleep-deprived or your vitamins are low, your effort will not yield the results you want.
Instead, you’ll end up being easily irritable, your ability to respond and think on your feet will be adversely affected and you’ll even be less motivated to do the work.
So take care of the basics – eat good and healthy food, sleep well, move around and stretch.
7. Focus on one thing at a time
It is not surprising that studies conducted to understand the effect of multitasking on productivity show that productivity will decline if you’re trying to do more than one thing at a time.
It could be something as simple as checking an email while you’re on a call with the client – for the time that you’re reading the email, you won’t be listening to what the client is saying. Don’t believe me? Please feel free to try it for yourself.
Studies conducted have noted that participants, when interrupted during their work, not only took longer to complete their work but even forgot about the tasks they were doing in the first place. Some of them just kept repeating what they had already done because they weren’t sure of what and how much of the document they had read or studied.
The second task which you switch to will work only as a distraction. This means you will take longer to resume each of the tasks as and when you multitask – to get in the reading email zone after getting out of the call zone or to get back to listening to the client after you finish reading the email.
Effectively, you will just end up spending more time to get all of the tasks done and the quality of all those tasks will also suffer.
