Good Rituals for Focused Work

The sign needn't be real - signaling to people you're going to do some focused work is enough.

If you have your own room for working, closing a door can serve as a barrier to potential interruptions.

Wearing headphones can block out some of the ambient sounds and create a subtle barrier to being interrupted.

Regular headphones with some sounds playing will also do the trick. But researchers found listening to music with lyrics caused a decline in performance while whit...

Consistently picking the same space for focused work will condition your brain to enter the right state of mind.

You can also pick focused spaces that limit the kind of unfocused work you can do. If you don't need the internet for your task, pick a spot without internet ac...

We often struggle with internal distractions. We get restless, bored, frustrated, or anxious about the task.

The best way to handle these emotions is to plan what exactly you will work on, how you will work on it, and what steps you will follow

Keep a time log of when you do focused work throughout the day. It makes focus more noteworthy than the feeling of being busy all day.

Writing down the starting time of a deep work session sets the intention to work deeply and makes tracking your hours easier.

For any focused work session, we should prevent the distractions we can control.

• Allow only a select few emergency channels to go through and interrupt you. Turn off all other notifications on your phone and computer.
• Ensure your email inbox is closed.
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