Dearest Reader,
Sometime ago, I came across a quote by David Denotaris, “Our focus is our future, and what we focus on multiplies in life”. When I saw this, I took a step back in realization of how true this is. The thing about focus is its compounding effect. The result is not seen immediately but with time. Imagine you are focusing on giving your 1% everyday without stopping. The 1% in itself is negligible but in 365 days of maintaining that focus, you would have put in 365% which is huge. Can you picture the astonishing result you would have achieved?
Maintaining focus for me has never been much of a hassle because once I start something, I don’t stop till I finish. While this is admirable, sometimes it can be a toxic trait. I will explain how. If I have a goal to work on a website for the day, once I set my hands on the task, I don’t drop it to do anything, sometimes even forgetting to eat till I successfully complete the website. What makes it easy though is that I enjoy what I do. Because of this, I don’t find it difficult to focus till the end.
However, from my interactions with people, I have learnt how difficult it might be sometimes to maintain such a level of focus. Through research and chatting with other people, I have gotten a few tips to help hone one’s focus I will be sharing in this entry.
8 Tips to Help You Hone Your Focus
- Know yourself
- Have a goal
- Eliminate your distractions
- Keep that phone away!!!
- Adopt a time blocking technique.
- Drink water
- Schedule breaks.
- Sleep
Know Yourself
There are one million and one tips that can be found out there, and so much advice you can be given. But, if you do not understand yourself, you will find that you will be moving from one tip to another with no visible effect. I have seen people that say music helps them stay focused. If you ask this kind of person for advice, they will ask you to try music. Meanwhile, for you, music is a huge distraction. Once you hear the tune, you get carried away. If you do not acknowledge this about yourself, and go ahead to take the advice of someone who suggested music, you will find yourself never attaining that focus you desire or even getting anything done.
Have a goal
To me, Goals are like anchors. They keep you grounded. Remember that goals should be SMART. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timebound. When you have a goal to be attained, it means you have something you are working towards. All your efforts are directed towards tasks that will help you achieve that goal within the specified time. It serves as an incentive to drive your focus.
Eliminate your distractions
Distractions are the things that derail people from their focus, and they vary for different individuals. This is another reason it is important to know yourself. For some people, a major source of distraction might be movies. For some books, or music, or games, or parties. Because we don’t all have interest in the same things, our sources of distraction cannot be the same. Once your source of distraction is identified, you seek ways to manage it. It could be by using it as a form of reward for attaining a goal. Something like if I am able to achieve this task for the week, I can allow myself to see movies all through the weekend. That way, there is something to look forward to, and a reason to keep away from the source of distraction.
Keep that phone away!!!
Yes, three exclamation marks for emphasis! The world is a global village and everything happens online. Nowadays, we spend the majority of our productive hours on our phones. The endless stream of messages, updates, news, and contents have been designed to keep us glued to our devices. Except you are intentional, it is very easy to spend the whole of your day tapping away on your phone. For the hours you have set aside to work or focus on a task, you can put your phone on Do Not Disturb, or put your phone away completely from you. If you absolutely have to use your phone for your task, identify the distracting applications and disable notifications for them. Though, a personal favorite still remains keeping your phone away.
Adopt a time blocking technique
In my entry about how to maintain organization as a VA, I talked about how using time blocks can help you stay organized. The good thing is that it can also help you stay focused. When you dedicate sections of your day to specific tasks, nothing comes between you and the task. Not even other tasks. You know that within this time, I am working on this, and that is what your focus is on.
Drink water
I can’t work without a bottle of water on my table. There is a way sufficient hydration keeps you focused on the task at hand and keeps your mind from wandering. So, ensure you take enough water and always keep a bottle handy.
Schedule breaks
When you keep at something for a long stretch of time, there is a possibility that you start to space out and lose your train of thoughts. Between long hours of focus, try to schedule short breaks to regroup before getting back to the task at hand.
Sleep
It is important to know that sleep is not a luxury. It is a necessity. No matter the amount of work you have to get done, let sleep be a part of your day. A sleep deprived brain finds it increasingly difficult to focus and effectively process information.
What helps you to keep your focus? Tell me in the comment section.
Bye for now,
Alexis.
