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The Fight for Focus: 4 Practical Steps
‘Deep Working’
The modern working environment is making our ability to focus on a huge issue: Open-plan offices, social media, etc.
When you need to do deep work, remove the distractions and work on a single task. The task will get done quicker and to a higher quality.
How much time you should spend on deep work will depend on your job.
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Build & Track Habits
Use an app to get you into the routine of doing certain activities daily and weekly.
At first, it might feel silly to write day-to-day tasks down in an app, but the process of ticking them off and tracking your progress helps to get you into a routine.
15-minute Mind Exercises
If you find your mind frequently jumping around, an app can be life-changing to help you focus.
It can train you to notice when your mind is wandering, and help you to get back on track.
E-mail discipline
E-mail can destroy your focus.
- Turn off e-mail notifications on your work computer, so that you are in control of when to look at e-mails.
- Schedule a time in the morning to reply to e-mails from the previous day.
- E-mails that require a speedy reply are highlighted and get attended to on the same day.
- Ditch social media during the day.
Find What Works for You
Read up about the daily routines of other CEOs, sports stars, etc.
You might not find an exact routine to suit you, but you might find some amazing ideas to use for your own life.
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Greater Focus
Be in the Now, realizing that the only available and real moment is the present moment is the best way to live. Apart from the Now, the rest is just unrealized fiction and bad memories no ...
A Long Walk For Focus
Walking is the best way to focus on the now, and is a blessing for the whole day if done in the morning. Life is already too short, and a nice walk prolongs time and gives it space.
Walking provides us with fresh air, exercise and peacefulness.
The Trick Of Deciding
The ‘decision hack’ to increase productivity is to not have too many distractions and options to choose from.
If we have a lot of actions and decisions to make in a long to-do list, every item suffers. The trick is to say yes to a few high priority items and say no to the rest.
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The Experimental Mindset
Instead of following the tips from other people, one should have an experimental mindset to try and build a lifestyle that suits them. And this in itself is a process.
Gustave Flaubert
“Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work."
Order and Creativity
We are not very good at multitasking because can truly focus on only one thing at a time.
Discipline leads to creativity. If we are able to bring discipline and order in our daily lives, by decluttering and focusing on the important things, we can be more productive and achieve a lot.
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Personal Productivity Curves
A lot of the internal things that affect our productivity are out of our control. Our energy, focus, and motivation follow their own path or “productivity curve” throughout the day.
Energy curves
We’re naturally more energetic and motivated at specific times of the day. Researchers call this our Circadian Rhythm. Every person’s rhythm is slightly different, but the majority follow a similar pattern.
- Waking up. Our energy levels start to naturally rise.
- Around 10 am. We’ve hit our peak concentration levels that start to decline and dip between 1-3 pm.
- Afternoon. Our energy levels rise again until falling off again sometime between 9–11 pm.
90 Minute Cycles
We work best in natural cycles of 90-120 minute sessions before needing a break. When we need a break, our bodies send us signals, such as becoming hungry, sleepy, fidgeting, or losing focus.
If you ignore these signs and think you can just work through them, your body uses your reserve stores of energy to keep up. It means releasing stress hormones to give an extra kick of energy.
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