How to focus and get your work done

When you are living life, it is easy to lose focus. When you lose focus, it becomes difficult to work and be productive.

The constant worrying, events happening in your life, anxiety, distractions – these can all affect the quality of your focus and affect your work.

If you are reading this article, then it means that you know your focus needs work. If you are not sure whether you have good focus or not, then here’s what happens when you have poor focus:

1. Your mind constantly wanders off in the middle of tasks
2. It takes forever to get through a task or the day feels unproductive
3. You procrastinate alot

It’s simple. When you have good focus, you are able to quickly get through tasks without interruptions, you meet those deadlines and feel proud of the work you’ve done.

So if you have poor focus, then what can you do to improve your focus and get through your task?

 

Here are some things that help me:

1. Plan your week with a To-do list

It’s easy to lose focus if you don’t have clear goals or can’t remember what you need to do! Every Sunday evening, I put aside time to create my to-do list for the week ahead.

It’s easy to forget tasks and this will linger over your head. You know there are things to be done, but in the moment you can’t remember them, making your focus dwindle as you try to remember those things.

Planning your week and being able to refer to your to-do list will save you a lot of time. Your brain will instantly remember what it needs to do, helping you focus and complete the task.

 

2. Assign one important task for each day on your to-do list

My to-do list normally goes like this:

Monday: Task 1, Task 2, Task 3

Tuesday: Task 1, Task 2, Task 3

Wednesday: Task 1, Task 2, Task 3

Thursday: Task 1, Task 2, Task 3

Friday: Task 1, Task 2, Task 3

Saturday: Task 1, Task 2, Task 3

Sunday: Task 1, Task 2, Task 3

Task 1 is the most important task for each day. I do not move on to the other tasks until I’ve completed task 1.

Allocating one single important task that must be finished to each day allows you to focus and reach your goals.

It’s easy to jump between different tasks each day which can reduce your focus preventing you from finishing any one task. Being able to see the most important task that must be done on any particular day allows you to focus better.

Furthermore, allocating one important task and finishing it feels like a mini victory. It’s like playing a game. You complete level 1 and then move on to level 2. With completion of each level, you achieve more and more points.

 

3. Remove distractions

I absolutely hate distractions. Imagine being in a state of flow and your colleague walks over to your table to discuss something irrelevant. It completely destroys one’s focus.

In order to focus, you need to ensure there are no distractions.

Find a quiet secluded place to work from where no one can interrupt you. Ensure that there’s nothing that could steal your focus such as big windows where you can see people walking by etc.

Put your phone away. I cannot stress the importance of this. Constantly checking your phone or social media can destroy your focus. Once you lose focus, it takes more energy to remember where you were and resume from there.

If you cannot get away from people, inform them that you are not to be disturbed during certain hours or when you are at your desk. Close your door to your office or workspace.

 

4. Reduce mental distractions/procrastination/day dreaming with mindfulness

Whilst you may be able to remove physical distractions, it isn’t easy to get rid of mental distractions.

You might find your mind wandering off in the middle of important tasks.

Perhaps you have been through something and you can’t get it off your mind. Maybe there are incessant negative thoughts clouding your mind. Maybe you are ruminating over something that happened to do with someone. It’s not always easy to shut off these thoughts. There isn’t a switch on and off button.

There are two ways to deal with this:

In advance

Practice meditation on a daily basis preferably first thing in the morning. During this time, you can go over your thoughts, allow them in, accept them, let them go, find solutions and give them space.

If you do not deal with these mental thoughts, they will consistently plague the rest of your day affecting your focus.

In the present moment

If you have not had a chance to meditate, or maybe you have meditated but the thoughts still find their way to you, then it’s important to be mindful of them.

Being mindful means to be in the present moment and be aware of what’s going on. If a negative thought enters your mind and is affecting your focus, you become aware of it and re-focus.

You can deal with your thought by telling your brain that you will put time aside to go over it later in that day. That way your mind will allow you to focus a bit better.

 

5. Pomodoro technique

According to this technique, you focus on a task for 25 minutes and then take a 5 minute break. Again you resume your task for 25 minutes and then take a 5 minute break.

Once you’ve done four rounds of this, you can take longer breaks of about 15-30 minutes.

The idea behind taking breaks like this is to enable the mind to be productive. Have you ever worked for a long period of time and you find that actually, you aren’t really doing any work even though you want to believe you are working?

Well, the point is taking a break allows your mind and eyes to rest.

 

4. 20-20-20 rule

Along with the Pomodoro technique above, there is a 20-20-20 rule which states that after 20 minutes, stare at a distant object atleast 20 feet away for 20 seconds.

I absolutely love this rule because my eyes feel so much better after looking far. We don’t realise that sometimes we can lose focus just because our eyes are tired and can’t work any more. Eye strain can cause fatigue, headaches and sleepiness all affecting productivity.

The best thing to do is to combine both the Pomodoro technique and 20-20-20 rule i.e take your break after 25 minutes and stare at a distant object for 20 seconds and you can walk around for the rest of the 4 minutes and 40 seconds 😉

 

5. Do your most important tasks when you’re most productive

I will complete my Task 1 first thing in the morning. In the morning, my brain is on full drive, I’m full of ideas, I’m refreshed and ready to go. It’s the best time to do my best work.

During the morning, I have much more focus than in the afternoon or evening.

It may be different for different people. Perhaps, your best time to focus is in the evening/night when you are alone without any distractions.

Figure out the best time for you and get your most important task done during this time.

 

6. Sleep, sleep and sleep

I can’t stress how important sleep is.

I struggle to sleep sometimes. And on the days when I don’t sleep, I have almost zero focus.

I have brain fog and I can’t focus on any task. Therefore, I am taking more measures to ensure I get good sleep such as:

1. Avoiding the consumption of caffeine as much as possible.
2. I listen to soothing music for the half hour just before going to bed
3. I do not stare at my phone or screen during that half hour
4. Eating foods rich in magnesium (mean’t to be good for sleep)
5. Exercising during the day
6. Avoiding stress/worry as much as I can and putting aside time for meditation and reflection

 

7. What is my motivation?

It’s easy to lose focus after having worked on a project for a while without results.

You begin to daydream, worry, become anxious, stressed.

One powerful way to drive focus for me is to always ask myself why I am doing what I am doing.

It gives me a sudden boost of both mental and physical energy to focus and get the task done because I know I’m working towards something bigger.

I tell myself that consistency and persistence is important. The results will come but I must focus and finish this task.

 

8. Go over your vision first thing in the morning

Along with remembering why you’re doing what you’re doing, it’s important to go over your vision along with the steps you need to undertake to achieve that vision.

This will keep your focus on track allowing you to get on with your work.

 

9. Enjoy what you are doing

I get it. It’s not always possible to enjoy what you are doing.

But if you enjoy what you do, it’s that much easier to focus. If you actually look forward to starting your day and getting that work done, there’s no stopping you.

Where you genuinely enjoy your work i.e. your own business, your passion etc, life will be so much easier.

Where you don’t really enjoy your work, you need to learn to adopt a positive mental attitude and think about why you must do that work. Perhaps, it allows you to buy those holidays that you really enjoy etc.

So enjoy the process and it will allow you to focus better.

 

10. Keep your physical energy up with good healthy food and exercise

You are what you eat. If you eat unhealthy sugary junk food, it won’t be long before you run out of energy and lose focus.

Eating well keeps your brain and body in good shape allowing you to work better.

Similarly, exercising gives your body an energy boost that allows you to be more productive improving your focus.

 

11. Avoid multi-tasking

We all think we are such geniuses, right? I know I think I am. I try to juggle a million different things at once.

But in the process, I don’t really finish anything. I’ve learnt that inorder to complete my tasks, I need to allocate time throughout the day to only one task at any time.

This allows me to fully focus, finish the task and move on to another.

Our brain is incapable of multi-tasking. You may multi-task and finish those tasks but they won’t be of the highest quality that could have been achieved had you focused on one.

 

12. Keep a book in your pocket or notepad on your phone for anonymous thoughts

Sometimes, I may be working and I might remember another task to be done which I had forgotten about. Sometimes, I may get a brilliant idea on how to improve my business. The issue is I’m focusing on something else and if I start focusing on this amazing new idea, I won’t finish either task.

I find that having a place to write down my thoughts as I get them is a great idea. It doesn’t interrupt the current task and at the same time allows me to come back to it in the future when I make time for it.

I also do not feel bad about not being able to work on that amazing new idea because I still have this other task to finish.

 

13. Assess and measure your results

Focus can diminish when our brain knows that we are not getting results. We put off assessing where we actually stand because we know we’ll be disappointed. This is our chimp brain talking. It hates discomfort and will find every way to convince us not to do anything that makes us uncomfortable. The problem with this is that your focus will wane.

Every week or every month, assess and measure your results. Are you reaching your goals?

When you measure your results, you know how far along you’ve come. This in turn allows you to either continue what you are doing or find another way to do it to get better results. This will drive focus.

e.g.

Downloading a fitness app allowed me to count how many steps I’m walking which motivated me to walk further

When you can see and count what you are achieving, it motivates you to do more and hence focus better.

 

14. Accountability

If you have someone in your life who can push you to reach your goals, you are more likely to be motivated and have better focus.

Get a bunch of friends or support bubble that can keep you accountable. You can tell them about what your goals are, how you to hope to get there, what you did during the week to reach your goals etc.

Celebrating successes and little victories with them can enable you to have more drive and focus.

 

15. Don’t put off tasks

If there’s a task that sounds very mundane and you are not looking forward to it, that’s the first task that you need to do.

Get it off your mind and chest. If you keep pushing it further away during the week or month, it will linger over your head reducing your focus.

Everytime you think about that task, it will affect your state and mood for the current task. So get those mundane tasks out of the way as soon as possible.

 

16. Listen to music for certain tasks or consume tea now and then

Ok, so these are two tips that sometimes work for me, sometimes they don’t.

If I am doing a very mundane task which needs to be done, doesn’t really need me to think and calculate or be innovative, I put on some relaxing background jazz to get me through it. And it does.

Beware that listening to music could turn into a distraction if it’s a task where you need to be churning up new ideas – so only use this when it’s something you can do on autopilot. Preferably music without lyrics.

Regarding tea, I try to avoid consumption as it may affect my sleep. However, there are days when I’m completely brain dead and need a little help.

On such days, tea can really help give me that caffeine kick and get through a task. But I will only ever consume tea once a week or every two weeks.

My point being don’t get addicted to it because then it won’t work.

 

How to focus and get your work done

I hope you enjoyed reading my tips on how to focus and get your work done. These points above have really helped me focus and I hope they help you too.

Ofcourse there will be days when you can’t focus even with all these tips and you need to be mindful. Always take time out to figure out where you are in life and if you’re happy with the way things are going.

If you aren’t in the right mental state, then all the tips in the world won’t work. So remember health first and everything else second 🙂