Staying productive is both extremely important and very difficult. The lure of time-wasting distractions is hard to resist, and that doesn’t include urgent but unimportant tasks that seem to draw attention away from those critical projects. Here are some simple and effective ways to improve your focus and spend more time doing the things that matter.
Wake Up Earlier
Successful people are very often early risers. They understand the benefits of intentionally rising early to spend quiet time with their muse. With most of the working world starting around 8 am, they are one step ahead of the crowd because they have had time to plan, organize, or strategize. By creating a habit of going to bed earlier to waking up before dawn productivity can be increased in unexpected ways.
Resist Social Media Usage
Social media platforms are built explicitly to hook users to get them to spend more time on the platform and to return to it often throughout the day. This is quite difficult to resist, as the user is facing an array of psychologists, designers, and engineers who all have a goal of keeping us engaged. One solution to this is to avoid social media altogether. This isn’t usually sustainable, but it can be very effective. A more functional way to use social media is to restrict the times it’s looked at down to 10 or 20 minutes every day. There are many blocking apps or programs to help limit the time.
Manage Email and Texts
Email and texts have an implied urgency, somewhat demanding that it be replied to immediately, as soon as it is delivered. This needs to be resisted, too, it’s easy to be interrupted every few minutes with a new message popping up. Even if the specific email or text is ignored, the focus is broken. The solution is simple but can be difficult. Close the email application and schedule time to work on email and only open email during those time frames. When it comes to texting silence the phone and only check it during certain time frames as well.
Focus
Understand where the focus needs to be for the year, for the month, for the week, and for the day. Then block time on the schedule to be dedicated to each project. In doing this it will be clear what needs to be done and what’s worthy of distraction. If it’s important to schedule it, all of it, as in family vacations, nothing time, reading. By doing this, the things that are most important will get done.
Review the Day
At the end of the day, set aside time to go over the day. What worked, what didn’t, what was distracting, what got accomplished, what didn’t get accomplished, what can be delegated, etc. This will improve the process and make every day better than the last.
For additional reading on focus and how to have more time in your day go to How To Have More Time in 5 Easy Steps.