7 Ways To Keep Your Focus and Conquer Distractions

Sometimes it’s  hard to focus on work.

Zig Ziglar said, “Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.”

More than anything, focus helps us improve our performance. It allows us to finish tasks on time and handle each stressful moment with ease.

Keep Your Attention and Get More Done

Improving your concentration is one step of being productive. However, eliminating distractions as they come may not be such an easy task. How can you keep your attention and get more done during a typical work day?

Check out these 7 Ways To Keep Your Focus and Conquer Distractions:

1. Clear Physical and Mental Clutter. Having a clean organized desk can reduce stress levels and have you surfing through the day engaged and motivated to do your tasks. Aside from physical clutter, ridding yourself with mental clutter, especially those thoughts that affect your focus, can significantly elevate your performance. Spend a few minutes each day to clean and maintain your desk.
2. Create Your To-Do List. The feeling of accomplishment comes with success in doing your tasks. When you break projects into manageable portions, you can tackle each task one “bite at a time,” and motivate yourself to finish everything on time.
3. Avoid multi-tasking. Aside from slowing down your thought process, it also prevents you from being fully engaged in one task at a time. Multitasking works to give your brain a boost in dopamine, which makes you more prone to commit mistakes, and more likely to switch between tasks rapidly. This leads to leaving out those stressful (but important) assignments in exchange for mini tasks that are relatively easy to finish, but not important.
4. Have Regular-Timed Breaks. Breaks can be rewarding and help you stay focused during an otherwise hectic day. Breaks away from work like talking a walk, talking to a coworker, or reading a book, improve productivity and help employees achieve more focus. Set a timer to go off after every hour of work, signaling that you should take a break.
5. Know The Best Times To Work. Most of us have special times in a day when we are in the zone. By scheduling most of your important work during this timeframe, you can give yourself the best advantage to work in the time when you are most focused. For example: according to research, 8AM is the best time of day to make critical decisions because most people are more in control and physically active around this time.
6. Remove Distractions. Distractions are your number one enemy when it comes to keeping your focus. Online distractions for example, can hamper you from more productive tasks. Keep your focus by limiting the number of open tabs on your browser. If you are prone to checking your social networking sites, you can block them during work hours using browser extensions like StayFocusd. For those who can’t resist looking at their emails after a pop-up notification shows itself, simply turn them off to help you overcome impulsive checking.
7. Limit Your Caffeine Intake. When we’re feeling sleepy or sluggish, we often reach for a cup of coffee. However, too much caffeine can be unhealthy too. Heavy consumption of caffeine can cause nervousness, irritability and insomnia. If you need the extra boost to work on a sluggish afternoon, try other alternatives like a protein bar, a healthy piece of fruit, or tea.

Final Thoughts

Time is irreversible. The minutes and hours you spend distracted can affect your performance. But with persistence and determination to accomplish the things you work on, you can conquer distractions and improve your concentration.