If you’re anything like me you may sometimes notice your thoughts jumping around rather wildly. When our minds are jumpy we tend to feel unsettled and find it hard to focus on one thing at a time.
This can be frustrating to live with. A lack of focus usually slows us down and results in a lower level of both quantity and quality of accomplishments.
Once highly respected as a time management skill, multi-tasking has not proven to be an ally. After being tried and now tested, multitasking has proven to reduce overall efficiency and accuracy. Giving focused attention to one thing at a time helps us to get more and higher quality work done.
Of course, weaving simple tasks around a major one can still be done without harming focus very much. An example of this would be starting a load of laundry before starting on an assignment you need to do. You may find it helpful to set a timer on your phone for when to switch the laundry so your brain doesn’t feel the need to remind you about the laundry a bunch of times, or cause you to forget entirely.
Speaking of phones, they can be possibly the deadliest enemy in losing focus. Their constant pinging and ringing can really break up the ability to get into a state where you’re able to flow freely. Also, there is likely to be something to look at on your phone that you find much more interesting than whatever you’re working on. We have a tendency to take the path of least resistance and just passively taking in whatever interests us is much easier than having to work toward a goal.
Technology can be the best of friends or the worst of enemies. Taking some time to think about how we can get our devices to work for us, rather than distract or control us, will reap rich rewards – less anxiety and more open time in our days. About how many hours a day would you estimate you spend on your devices for purposes other than work?
Most of us could easily gain an hour of free peaceful time a day by creating limits on our own screen time. What would you like to do with this time?
Another enemy in our fight against distraction is a cluttered environment. While we want to avoid perfectionism, which is another enemy of productivity, taking even a little time each day to straighten things up will pick up your energy and focus and probably your mood as well. I know I’ve lost a lot of time looking for things or having to tackle terrible build-ups, of paper in particular.
These thoughts will give us enough to focus on for now. Especially since taking on too many things at once increases stress and decreases focus. Stayed tuned for another column on focus next month.
