Tips for Staying Focused At Work

Being productive is not about how many hours a day we spend at work. Productivity requires our focus for achieving a certain task or more.  However, a lack of focus works against productivity. I have personally noticed days where my focus is more concentrated than others for which I’ve adopted some techniques to help me stay on track. For maintaining focus becoming more aware of what I pay attention to has helped me become more organised with time management.

Here are a few techniques I use to help keep me focused

Write a To-Do-List

1. Define daily goals – gain clarity and become organised by mapping exactly what needs to be done. Create a to-do-list each night for the day ahead or in morning can help get the thinking processes started improving focus for achieving our objectives. Number the list according to job priority. Tick the jobs off the list when they’re accomplished.
2. Distractions – common in the workplace, distractions can take focus away from our work, lower performance and affect productivity. The phone can ring; meetings and other constant interruptions can take our focus. Use the to-do-list to regain focus on days when experiencing a loss of concentration caused by interruptions to the daily workflow.

Break It Up

1. Collaborating with others – enables us to utilize the skills of professional work colleagues as they come together for the completion of a larger project. Team work is a skill in itself.
2. Divide the work – when going solo on a large project we can also divide the job into smaller segments for accomplishing one bit at a time. We can liken this process to a jigsaw puzzle. All the bits eventually come together to form one big picture.
3. Ask For Help – there’s no shame in asking for help or to delegate parts of the work to others who are able to assist with the bigger project.

When We’ve Become Stuck

There are days when our creativity may be lacking, we’ve encountered a mental block or we just can’t move forward.

1. Do something else – keeping in mind that the numbered to-do-list is flexible we can simply move onto the next thing on our list.
2. Research – we might want to research the job for equipping ourselves with information. Research has allowed me to gain a clear understanding of a task at hand, has equipped me with knowledge to complete the job well and has empowered me with confidence for getting the job done.
3. Take a Break – moving away from the office desk for a break can be refreshing. The break from our usual activities is often what we need for a rested return to work with clarity of mind.

The best thing we can do for ourselves is to become organised.  Being organised adds simplicity to our lives. Having structure can help retain our focus by preventing us from becoming side-tracked with the less important stuff.

Sandra Ciminelli
cred. Dip.Couns.(Christian)