If you’re like the rest of the human race, it’s quite easy to become distracted and unproductive. We are constantly interrupted by text tones, emails, social media notifications and a whole lot more, so getting into a focused zone of productivity can be a challenge. So, how do you do it? How do you get in the zone and stay focused? Here are a few tips that may help:
Let Your Brain Turn Off
As humans we are designed to be in one of two states. Either we’re on auto pilot or we’re in full power mode. Auto pilot sounds like a unproductive place to be, but in reality it’s healthy to be there some of the time. We are hard wired to learn tasks well enough to be able to do them without even thinking. So, let yourself turn down when you’re doing mundane tasks. You don’t need to be in full power mode while folding socks, stapling information packets, printing 100 copies of your market survey, etc. Giving yourself that auto pilot window will allow you to have plenty of mental energy when you need to think creatively and focus in on tough tasks.
Manage Your Time Well
You cannot be in full power mode all day long so it’s important break up your day in a manner that allows you to have bursts of focus. You will be able to retain your energy much better by going back and forth between auto pilot and full power mode. You shouldn’t stay in full power mode for more than 90 minutes. This seems counter intuitive, however, at the end of the day you’ll find that you were able to accomplish more and deliver better results.
Train Your Brain to Focus
Because of the distracting work that we live in, we’ve been trained to live very unfocused lives. We go from one thing to next before we even have a chance to blink. Practice taking small amounts of time where you only focus on one thing. Start with 5 minutes and work your way up to larger amounts of time. Eventually, it will become easier to focus in when you really need to.