deepstash
Beta
8 Surprising Strategies for Unstoppable Focus
Resist ‘Doing It All’
If you try to do all you can you will be overwhelmed and feel guilty for not giving adequate focus to anything.
Remove everything from your life that’s unnecessary to be left with worthwhile things to pursue. Also, have a top-priority item to accomplish and don't move to another until you check it off.
289 SAVES
345 READS
SIMILAR ARTICLES & IDEAS:
4
Key Ideas
Break Up The Tedious Tasks.
Boring tasks lead to distraction and procrastination and enduring them exacerbates the problem. By taking frequent breaks and doing physical activity, gives you the energy you need to mai...
Fidget To Help You Focus
Trying to focus on something without moving tires the mind. In general, releasing excess energy throughout the day will help you stay on task.
When you need to pay attention during a call or meeting, bring a small object that you can play with, such as putty. Handling something that you can manipulate mindlessly while you listen frees up your mental energy so you can better focus.
Visually Map Your Time And Tasks
- Use free hours effectively by ranking your task list visually.
- Try color coding your list according to priority, with four or five levels of urgency.
- Do the essential, time-sensitive tasks early in the week while you're fresh, then save the optional ones for later.
5
Key Ideas
Be the last to speak
This way, you'll be able to hear your team’s true thoughts, which you can to use to inform the opinion you yourself deliver at the end of the conversation.
As a leader, if you speak f...
Shut down outside distractions
A key part of being a good listener is showing the speaker that he or she has your undivided attention. Close your laptop and put away your phone.
This gives those speakers the confidence to express themselves fully without feeling that they’re imposing on your time.
Mind your body language
7 percent of a message is conveyed through words. Body language plays a major role in how we communicate and how we listen.
When you’re listening, then, be aware of what your body language is saying to the speaker. Unfold your arms and be open to what this person has to say.
2
Key Ideas
Steve Job's effectiveness boiled down to this:
He inspired team members first so that they were driven to live up to his exacting standards when the situation called for it.
Get this equation backwards and you will wonder why&...
The formula for being an inspirational driver
- Know your "noble cause." Jobs understood that if teams don’t find their work meaningful, they perceive challenging directives from a leader as arbitrary demands rather than a call to sacrifice for a higher purpose.
- Tell your story early and often. If you can’t weave your ideas into a clear, compelling story, those ideas remain abstract words likely to be forgotten.
- Push, but within boundaries. Make sure you have a clear end point and time line in mind before you go into "push" mode. Intense work with no clear end in sight is demoralizing.