It was morning and you woke up telling yourself you are going to get some chores done around the house. Get up you did and you had breakfast, catch up on the news, check the emails and reply any message from last night. You tell yourself once again that you should stop dilly-dallying around and do some actual work. You pick up the broom and swept the bedroom for 10 minutes. You feel thirsty so you go for a drink. Why not turn on the television so you can work while you watch while at it? It’s now night time and the only chores you had done is sweeping the bedroom for that 10 minutes. You go to bed regretting and promise yourself to do it first thing in the morning the next day. You didn’t finish any chore until the end of the week when your parents are visiting.
Most of us are that way, distracted by random, unnecessary task and avoiding doing anything worth doing. How to do we realign our focus on the task at hand? How to concentrate on work? Here are 8 ways that could improve your focus and minimize the attention-diverting activities.
How to Concentrate On Work: Try These 8 Practical Ways Today!
Relax before you work
Being too stressed up over the work would only inhibit whatever you are doing and your concentration. Before you start, relax and get into a gentler mood first. Free your mind from the upcoming workload and get some snacks and tea. Relax before you start working so you feel more ready and recharged for better concentrating on your work. Care to not abuse the time you take to relax.
Make a list of your tasks
It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the work you need to do through the day. Mentally plan what and how long you are going to take to finish the task, how easy or difficult the task is. Set your priorities right on track and think the things that you need to get done. Knowing what you are going to be doing will help with keeping you on task while always keeping your workload in check with your expectations.
Write down and organize what you need to do. Decide what should be prioritized and which ones you could leave undone for the time being. Go down the list one at the time and the amount of task won’t seem as daunting as you finish it through the day. Moreover, you won’t have to worry about forgetting what you need to do next, allowing you to concentrate on whatever task you had on hand.
Get your workstation organized
Not only having things cluttered around will distract you, but you will most likely divert away from your work in order to satisfy that sudden urge to just keep the place clean. Fiddling with the knacks on your workstation aside, having only your work and the things you need to complete it will do a lot to keep your focus on track. Stuff them all in the desk drawer or the cupboard, food and drinks should be out of view but still within reach. Your phone? Stuff it along in your desk drawer.
Make your computer distraction-free
Distraction is always one click away with the access to the Internet. Self-control is the only thing that can truly stop you from doing so. Have all the programs shortcuts you routinely used kept neatly in a folder. Use a separate browser to get all your work done with where you block all the social medias, YouTube and other similar time black holes. If you can’t control yourself, hope that the “Blocked Content” page reminds you that you should be doing your work.
Always find what you do inspiring and fun
Nothing brings in productivity like enjoying the work you are doing and being passionate about it. We will go miles and hours on the thing that we enjoy, like finishing a whole season of your favorite show in one go. But we instantly lose that focus once we start doing something we have zero interest in. It might take time and effort to finally find your edge in the work and then find interest in it, but thinking about the big picture could help you concentrate on your work.
If you enjoy the work you are doing, it won’t feel like a job at all! Before you start your mountain of tasks, ask yourself this question: Why do it? Is it desire to be better, working towards your future, or just wants to get it over with so you can go back to slack? Give the task some value and feel inspired doing it.
If not, find ways you can get the work to be less draining and more fun.Get creative and let the imagination flows. Open up your options that will be more engaging to you and still deliver the quality expected. Creating something you want to be proud of will get you to focus more.
Reward yourself for your determination
It’s alright to visit your Facebook and Twitter to get your social media fix every now and then, as long as you don’t spend too much of a time on them, especially when you still have work to do. Have a 5 minutes break every 30 minutes to recharge, then have a big reward when you finish. Small incremental rewards help to get your mind overworked and end up getting more easily distracted. Set a work/rest schedule and strictly stick to it, tune them to your preference if you must.
Cut the breaks
Cutting breaks to increase productivity creates an interesting paradox. On one hand, less time spent on break means more time to get work done. On the other hand, less break time means more distracted worker and as such a drop in productivity. However, a long break doesn’t necessarily increase productivity either and might instead divert the mind away from the work mood.
Find that sweet spot where the amount of break is enough to warrant you to be as productive and allow you to stay focused. Too long and your mind would have wandered off elsewhere so you spend more time to get back in the work mood.
Just do it now
No matter how many methods you learn about how to concentrate on work, these methods are meaningless if you never start to apply them. We keep getting excuses to delay and distract ourselves away from doing the work. So we push and push them hours to days at a time, constantly giving yourself empty promises and more excuses.
Start the work and force yourself into sitting down to actually doing the work. Once you get that tough part down, your mind will try to keep more focused as you don’t want to keep the now started work halfway unfinished.
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