You are nearing deadlines, and you have to submit the project within the next few hours. However, despite all your efforts you are losing your focus.
Relatable?
Don’t worry; you are not alone. Many people feel it harder to focus on work owing to multiple things going on in their minds and hearts.
Let’s delve deeper into why you fail to maintain focus and what you can do to stay focused while working.
The challenge of maintaining focus
In this gig economy, everyone has more work, less time and increasing distractions. As humans, we tend to pay attention to every small change happening around us. We seek out ways to get engaged in our pleasurable activities.
Common distractions like email notifications, being lured to multitask, personal and professional issues, noisy surroundings, and too much work often make it difficult for you to concentrate on tasks. However, for overall job satisfaction and enhanced productivity, deep concentration is required to complete tasks.
As an employee, you must work on factors to sustain your focus so that you can excel in your professional endeavors.
Understanding the causes of distractions
It’s true that we tend to lose focus due to several distractions present around us. But why do we get distracted? Why can’t we concentrate on what we are doing?
Well, there is no one reason for this. Distractions can cause you to lose your focus for several reasons.
Lack of motivation
Firstly, we don’t feel motivated to do work. Without motivation, it becomes very easy to get off track, even with minor distractions. The lack of motivation can be due to work overload, monotonous work or some personal issues.
Multitasking
Nowadays, a single person handles multiple responsibilities. As a result, when you start working on one task, you immediately think of another getting neglected. Further, handling multiple tasks at one time affects your productivity and increases the chances of errors.
Sometimes, overwork may be overwhelming, making you lose concentration from your work.
Personal issues
If you are going through any personal issues, there is a high probability that you won’t be able to focus at work. Even a small distraction like people crossing by you, colleagues chit-chatting around you or notifications on others' smartphones may distract you. Once distracted, it’s hard to get back to work.
Social media
Undoubtedly, social media is the biggest distraction of today’s time. Whether you are at the office or in a personal gathering, a single beep on your phone is enough to take you away from your physical state.
Social media notifications, email bombardments, and phone calls all make you lose focus while at work. Once you pick up your phone to look at a message, you tend to spend another 30 minutes there.
Besides these, back-to-back meetings, a distracted work environment, and office politics are also some reasons employees get sidetracked.
Strategies for improving focus
If you want to know how to stay focused at work, you need to follow the right approach. From your mindfulness to optimizing the work environment, there are several strategies that help you regain your concentration at work. Let’s go with these tips to stay focus.
Managing time smartly
Try the Pomodoro technique of working, which means focusing on your work for 25 minutes and taking a 5-minute break. Divide your hours to focus on specific tasks, as with this planning, you know how much time to give to some particular tasks. It will help you become more efficient and organized.
Don’t overdo
Try to break your work into smaller tasks. Continuously working on a project often makes you lose focus over time.
Try to outsource some tasks if possible. For example, if your business involves creating invoices for employees, take the help of platforms like Ruul. Ruul’s global invoicing solutions can unload some of your tasks and make payments quicker than ever. When you outsource one task, you can focus on other productive issues.
Practicing mindfulness
Practicing mindfulness exercises like meditation can help you build focus and reduce stress. Focus on breathing while you walk to enhance your cognitive abilities. Walking without any distractions makes you more aware of your surroundings and increases your mental awareness.
Prioritizing your work
Create a to-do list and prioritize your tasks. Pick the most important task at the time of the day when you are most focused.
Detoxifying digitally
Try to spend a few hours in a day without any digital device. stay away from every gadget whether you are working or taking breaks. Over time, you will develop healthy working habits with this.
Creating a productive work environment
Organizations can also help their employees in building focus by offering a productive work environment. For a productive culture, companies must set clear goals for their employees and ensure effective communication and necessary resources for the completion.
Try to keep track of tasks allotted and remind employees of deadlines. Having a proper calendar management can bring an unfocused employee back to work.
Maintaining a clean and organized work environment can also prevent people from distraction. Also, try to offer skill training and career development opportunities so that employees always feel motivated and become more efficient.
Tools and apps to aid concentration
Along with adopting these strategies, there are several apps and online tools that help you avoid distractions and allow your mind to focus on work. Read and try:
- There are some meditation apps offering audio guise that guide you to stay calm and focus.
- Listen to your favorite music for focus enhancement. This helps when you are doing monotonous work and feel demotivated
- Try Trello, a project management tool that keeps all your tasks, projects and meetings organized so that you can instantly know what you have to do.
- You can also try some tools that help to block distracting websites and apps such as Freedom, SelfControl, Cold Turkey Blocker and many more.
- For effective time management, you can switch to apps like RescueTime, which keeps track of the time spent on apps and websites. With this, you can learn about your habits and the time you spend distracted.
Personal habits for sustained focus
Apart from the above strategies, you can bring some healthy changes in your behavior and lifestyle to develop focus over time. Some of the tips include:
- Avoid multitasking as instead of increasing productivity, it often divides your attention.
- Try to sleep at least for 6-7 hours at night. To facilitate the habit of early sleeping, stay away from smartphones and laptops at night.
- Eat a healthy diet full of fruits, vegetables, healthy fats and whole grains. Proper nutrition improves your brain health, improving your cognitive functioning.
- Be grateful for what you have. Instead of cribbing about your job and tasks, develop a positive mindset and express gratitude for what you have and what you do.
Conclusion
Just knowing how to stay focused at work won’t help. You will have to develop that practice by bringing some changes in your personal and professional lifestyle. Incorporating healthy practices help you enhance focus on your work and get better results in your professional life.
