Some Most Effective Ways to Improve Focus

Being focused in the present moment means that you are solely focused on the one activity that you are trying to complete. Full an undivided attention to the task at hand.

The ability to stay focused is becoming increasingly more rare as we advance in the modern age.

Why?
Because we live in a world where everyone tries to get our attention and keep it. Instagram, Facebook, general notifications, Netflix, etc. Everything is designed to steal our focus.

With so many people and elements trying to get our attention, we need to relearn how to focus. Here is a couple of tips:

#1: FOCUS ON ONE THING AT THE TIME

The ability to focus is an undervalued skill. In today society people are often encouraged to multitask. But believe me, mono-tasking changes everything.

When you are focusing on performing one task at the time it forces you to focus.

The time-management technique timeboxing is a great asset when it comes to mono-tasking. Timeboxing is simply fixing a time period to work on a specific task. Instead of working on a task until it’s done, you commit to working on it for a specific amount of time.

During a timebox, your mind should be focused on one task, the task at hand. Multitasking is forbidden. This enables you to give the task you are working on, extra focus

BTW: Want to learn more about this technique? Grab this PDF for details.

“Time management is not a peripheral activity or skill. It is the core skill upon which everything else in life depends. “ — Brian Tracy

#2: PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS

RescueTime

If you want to become more productive, you need to understand how you spend your time. RescueTime does that for you.

Honestly, RescueTime may be the greatest time-management tool out there.

Here is a couple of the features of RescueTime.

Read my in-depth review of RescueTime here.

One of the many great features is called FocusTime. When you activate FocusTime, the application RescueTime starts blocking all websites that it categorizes as distracting. You do not need to enter the websites manually, RescueTime does this for you.

This helps you work in productive timeboxes.

I would really recommend applying RescueTime to your productivity. Learn more about the app here.

#3: ORGANIZE YOUR WORK AROUND YOUR ENERGY LEVELS

Ever tried to do something high-energy, demanding and hard work when you are tired? The chance of losing your focus when you are tired always increases!

We are all human, we can’t be deadly effective 24/7. But, productivity isn’t about that. Productivity is all about organizing your work around your energy levels.

According to Redbooth, your productivity isn’t constant throughout the week, or even throughout a day. We are human beings, we have a different amount of energy and productivity during a day. The study from Redbooth, shows that the normal person is most productive at around 11 am. After that, the productivity decreases, and at 4 o’clock, very little gets done.

Over the next day, try to observe your energy levels. When are you most effective? When are you most productive? At what times do you usually feel tired?

Identify your peak and dips in productivity. Use this template if you want.

When you have identified this, do the following.

1. Peak Productivity Phase - It’s during these periods you should complete the study projects that involve creative strategizing, problem-solving and critical decisions.
2. Low-Level Productivity Phase - Don’t waste this time. If you end up binge-watching Netflix every time you enter a phase like this, you will be wasting a lot of time. Instead, do the tasks that do not require a lot of energy or creativity to accomplish. This can be tasks like:

#4: BREAK LARGE PROJECTS INTO SMALL, DOABLE TASKS

How do you eat a elephant?

One bite at a time.

Whenever you are facing a big, time-consuming and energy demanding task. Break the task into smaller parts, that can be done in a realistic timeframe. When you accomplish these “baby-goals” you will be one step closer to your big goal. This makes you move against your goals, and gives you motivation on the way.

It is easier to focus when the task at hand has a short-term perspective and not a long term.

I call this the divide & conquer principle. You need to break your goals into a thousand pieces, then attain each of those thousand pieces and in the end reach your goals. This means that you must outline each step you must take in order to reach your goals. This will help you to stay on track and establish a clear finish line. It will also help you measure progress. Learn more about this principle here.

It’s a wrap. Don’t let this be another one of those Quora answers you just read, NO, take action and change your life.