I was working on a new product when all of a sudden my phone rang, “Hello?”, I asked. On the other side was a friend who wanted to catch up. I had very little time to work at that time, so I politely ended the call and tried to get back to work. A Facebook notification came up on the screen, telling me we have some new followers to the page, “That’s awesome”, I thought, and turned back to the concept I was working on.
These type of small interruptions, which you immediately get back to work after, seem harmless but they’re your worst enemy. The attention span today is about 8 seconds. That means that unless you focus on your work entirely, you will probably wander off or do mediocre job, and as an entrepreneur\business wner, that’s something you can’t afford.
Here are some tips to help you maintain your focus and keep you more productive:
1) Prevent Interruptions
Does this mean you call all your friends and tell them not to disturb you in the following hour? No, just take preemptive measures to prevent those from happening, such as:
* Turn your phone off\set it on silent
* Turn off unnecessary notifications, emails for example
* Place a sign on your door
By keeping the interruptions down, you are more likely to keep working and stay on course.
2) Work On the Hard Tasks First
Usually when you start to work you are more concentrated than after lunch or at the end of the day. Make sure you use that time to work on the important and harder tasks since you can do the easier tasks with less concentration.
3) Maintain Standard Schedule
Having a set schedule has a lot of benefits, including a mindset for the duration of that event time, for that purpose. When you set an event in your calendar for everyone to see, or even just for yourself, you place yourself in a state of mind for dedicating that timeframe for the task you need finished. You can use that to hold yourself accountable for completing the task, thus, increasing the chances for you to keep your focus.
4) Plan Ahead
If you decide to work on something without a plan, chances are your mind will wander and the task will be all over the place. Set yourself goals and a few bullets of the things you want to complete. Goals usually help get tasks done and help to maintain the concentration on the important things.
5) Motivation Is Key
Raise your motivation levels prior to working on the subject by listening to inspiring speeches, watching motivational videos on Youtube or whatever floats your boat (just don’t overdo it and forget your goal). Pump yourself up for that boost of energy levels to complete the task more efficiently.
If that helped you, share this post with your friends. I’m definitely getting back to working on the product now 🙂
See you in the next post,
Dekel
