deepstash
Beta
4 Common Reasons You Can’t Focus On Your Work (And How To Destroy Each One)
Quick Fixes For Fatigue Don't Work In The Long Run
If you feel foggy, yawning at your desk, or drinking too much coffee, you're probably overtired, and it is interfering with your ability to concentrate. Scientists hypothesize that a continued lack of sleep might destroy your brain cells.
A quick fix is to go for a walk outside or to drink a glass of water. But these fixes are no replacement for regularly getting a full night's rest.
139 SAVES
853 READS
SIMILAR ARTICLES & IDEAS:
11
Key Ideas
Time anxiety
Time anxiety is the feeling that you have not done enough to meet your goals or that you're not using the time you do have effectively.
Time anxiety is more than feeling overwhelmed at times - it haunts your days and causes you to procrastinate on essential tasks.
Your relationship with time changes
The irony is the more we focus on the limited time we do have, the more restricted our time feels.
Time had little impact on us as children. We used to spend our days with mostly unstructured games and learning. As we became teenagers, time started to gain importance. As adults, time becomes an essential and scarce resource that we have to attempt to control.
6
Key Ideas
The urgency bias
We usually give priority to unimportant tasks when there is a sense of urgency around them.
We’re actually psychologically wired to put aside important tasks in favor of ta...
Why it’s hard to ignore urgent tasks
A few explanations as to why it’s so hard to reject urgent tasks:
- The completion bias. Our brains crave the reward we get from checking off small to-dos from our list.
- Tunnel vision: When we get overwhelmed by the things we have to do, we choose to act on those most available to us; these are usually emails, calls, meetings, and other low-friction tasks.
Urgency puts us into reactive mode
The problem is that we’re continually bombarded with urgent work: emails, meetings, calls, and instead of being in control of our time and attention, we respond and act on someone else’s priorities.
10
Key Ideas
Failing to Keep a To-Do List
The trick with using To-Do Lists effectively lies in prioritizing the tasks on your list. Many people use an A – F coding system (A for high priority items, F for very low priorities).
Not Setting Personal Goals
Goals give you a destination and a vision to work toward. When you know where you want to go, you can manage your priorities, time, and resources to get there. Goals also help you decide what's worth spending your time on, and what's just a distraction.
Not Prioritizing
It's essential to learn how to prioritize tasks effectively if you want to manage your time better.
Determine if a task is high-yield and high-priority, or low-value, "fill in" work. You'll manage your time much better during the day if you know the difference.