Maintaining focus is the cornerstone of productivity. Being able to maintain focused attention and work on a specific task will enable you to do it better and faster. It sounds easy, but it’s surprisingly hard to maintain focus and our world is set up to prevent us from focusing.
The multitasking myth
Multi-tasking isn’t really a thing. We can only do one thing at a time. Multi-tasking is simply switching tasks frequently. This means not only having to switch context, but it often means having to go back and review where you were at in order to start again. Doing that constantly is far from efficient, it’s actually a deeply inefficient way of doing things. Much better than multitasking is serial tasking. Do one thing to completion (or for a fixed period of time) then move on to the next. During each task maintain complete focus on it.
A distracted world
Our brains have been trained by our modern lives and technologies to have incredibly short attention spans. Most of us are addicted to our phones. Think about how many times you’ve reached for your phone to mindlessly check for messages or started scrolling through social media posts without even really paying any attention to them out of habit. Breaking these habits can make a huge difference to your productivity and your overall wellbeing.
Anyone working in marketing will be able to tell you how challenging it is to create compelling messaging and content which works in the few seconds of attention we give it. Extending how long we can maintain our attention on one thing takes a concerted effort.
An environment for maintaining focus
Creating an environment for maintaining focus is about removing distractions. Whether though creating a calm and uncluttered workspace by decluttering, turning off notifications or using the ‘focus time’ options on your devices (or better still putting them out of reach!) or timeblocking your diary. You can create a working environment which supports your ability to maintain focus.
Here are some other ideas for things you can try to maintain your focus:
- Think about how much time tasks will need. If you have a deep thinking task to do, find an extended period to do it in. Trying to do it in smaller blocks will make it much more challenging to get into the thinking process enough to go further than surface deep.
- Remove temptation. Unless you actually need your phone or laptop with you try leaving them behind so you physically can’t be distracted by technology. If it’s people who are the biggest distraction for you, move yourself to somewhere where the temptation to chat isn’t there.
- Set yourself focus goals. It might just be focusing for 5 mins to start with. Over time you’ll be able to increase the amount of time you can maintain focus for. Celebrate your successes, and if you find yourself being distracted, identify what it was the distracted you and think of a way to reduce that. We’re all going to have different triggers for distraction.
- When you do get into a focused state and get into a great flow with your work, reflect back on it afterwards. What was it that helped you? How was the environment different to your usual set up and how can you replicate it?
Maintaining focus for your relationships
Focus is important both for work tasks and also for building better relationships. We’ve all been there when we’re talking to someone and they get distracted and start doing something else. How does it make you feel?
Being present with people when you speak to them is very important in building relationships. And in today’s society it’s surprisingly rare. Try spending a week really focusing on your conversations, actively listening and being present in them. You might be surprised about the difference it makes. You’ll not only benefit the people you’re speaking with, but the quality of the relationships and how positively you’re perceived.
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