There is so much to enjoy and take in everywhere! In the office alone, there are a lot of opportunities to interact with a variety of people. Even at your desk, you probably have a lot of things that can distract you and redirect your focus.
A focus hack that works for me – and I do it nearly every day – is to have a piece of paper nearby so that I can write down things I need to do later. If I don’t write them down, it swirls around in my mind and distracts me from completing the task at hand.
In fact, this picture of a to-do list was taken right now as I’m writing blog posts. I want to focus on the blog posts and yet two important to-do items popped into my head (send thank you notes for last week’s meetings and schedule year end tax appointment with my accountant) that need attention, but don’t need to be completed right this moment. I find that if I don’t jot it down and get it out of my head, I’ll be too distracted from completing the task at hand.
You’d think that I could come up with the task item and then remember later, but sometimes it’s harder to allow myself to flow with the current task and push my brain to try and remember all the other little things that need attention too. So, that’s why I started having a to-do list on hand for quick notes. If there is more to the task that needs to be done, I explore that later – when I have time and can focus on that task in particular.
How do you keep your focus?