Recognize that you’re in the wrong mental state. It’s not likely to lead to a calm focus. It will lead to you doing busywork or seeking distraction.
Experiment to find a set of actions that can help you move into the right mental state. This is going to be different for each person, but with some experimentation, you can discover things that work for you.
Most people feel busy and distracted throughout the day - calm and focus and a feeling of purpose are fairly rare for most of us. We're jumping from messages to social media to email to quick work tasks to a search for something we're curious about, from dozens of messages to dozens of posts to a couple doze browser tabs.
We are constantly distracted throughout the day. Without focusing on anything with a calm, relaxed mind, we keep jumping from messages, to-do lists, social media, and email. Constantly jumpin...
The Mind is not an enemy, which needs to be killed, but something to befriend.
Creating a calm space inside us can help calm the monkey down. Like a toddler throwing tantrums, you need to calm down the surroundings and minimize activity to keep the noise down.
Reducing distractions can help calm our Mind. We normally have a thousand things to check or look after throughout the day, be it email, notifications, etc. all of which keep the Monkey Mind jumping.
We are rushing too fast, most of the day. We need to slow down, pause and get quieter in between our never-ending daily routine.
While I don't think that productivity and efficiency is the answer to life, nor should it be your only focus ... there are still a ton of benefits from Getting Stuff Done. A ton.
One of the most important life skills to develop, for those just starting out in life (and everyone else!), is the skill of self-discipline. It's like a superpower: when I developed some self-discipline, I started exercising and eating healthier and meditating and writing more, I quit smoking and ran marathons, I started a blog and wrote books, I read more and work earlier, I decluttered and transformed my finances.
Wanting to help others: If you get better at not procrastinating on your life’s work, for example, you can help more people with that meaningful work.
Appreciating life: We have a short time on Earth, and the life we have is a gift. When we procrastinate and give in to endless distraction, and don’t make the most of our time, we are not fully appreciating the gift we have.