Focus: Tips to Keep Focused in Tough Times

Today's a perfect day to talk about focus, or its lack. That's for 2 reasons.

1)  Today's election day.

It's one of the most important elections in...decades. Stop reading this post right now if you haven't voted yet. Go vote. Then return and finish reading this post.

2) Recession. We're in a recession. Recessions are just the means to end excesses in the economy. It happens. It's a regularly phase in any economy. All good things come to an end.

Hidden in a recession are the opportunities for the future economy. What areas of the economy are not burdened by excesses. There's our opportunity.

The only question is how long's it last and what can we do to minimize its impact on our families and communities and business. That brings us to...focus.

Here's some links to tips and resources that will help you stay focused to find that opportunity and find it fast. I've listed my favorite, one that I already follow, culled from each link.

* Seven Tips for Staying Focused

1. Create some "unavailable" time. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It's great to be that person co-workers can come to
with questions,
but it can also keep you from getting your own work
done. Give
yourself some time to be unavailable. Close the door
to your office
and put up a "do not disturb" sign.

* 18 ways to Stay Focused at Work, David Cheong

Apply time boxing. In a previous article, I wrote about the benefits of time boxing. Instead of working at something till it is done, try working on it for a limited period, say 30 mins.

* Tips for Staying Focused and Productive, by Liz Bywater, PhD

Stop trying to be perfect. There’s very little in life that has to be done to the point of perfection. Few people notice the difference between a job well done and a job perfectly done. Do it well and then move on.

* 5 Tips for Staying Focused, an Eclectic Mind by Maria Langer

If you don’t need an Internet connection to work on your project, turn it off.

(note: The bolded text above is my homage to honoring the previous tip: Stop trying to be perfect. I can't find a quick way to change the font. I don't want to fuss with Html.)

* Five 5-Minutes Tips to Staying Focused by Business Pundit

5) Vent
Talking to someone else about your concerns absolves you of the shame, guilt, and self-doubt that fester inside of undiscussed problems. Discussing your issue with another person puts it in perspective—and gets you ready to work again with a fresh mind.

* 11 Ways of Staying Focused, David Cheong again. David's focused on staying focused, and helping us stay focused. Facetiousness aside, this is another great list and includes links to even more tips, including a link to an interview with David Allen, Getting Things Done.

Rewarding myself when warranted.  Whenever I accomplish a logical piece of work, I always reward myself. It really does help with maintaining motivation.

Each of these links includes steps we can take, right now, to help bring focus and organization to our life.

Here's my plan. I'm not taking them all at once. See above point about skipping perfection. I'll just take one**. Then take another one next week. Maybe 2 more in two weeks. I can see by then I'll have incorporated naturally 2-3 more without looking.

I don't know about you (you're welcome to tell me in the comments section) but I'm more productive when I'm focused and I'm a lot happier to be around, too, when I'm focused. So, let's be productive AND happy moving forward.

** Which one? Maria Langer's post includes the tip Don't run your email application. I like that one. If it's urgent, people will call me on my cell phone. That leaves me free to focus on work until lunch. The morning's often the time I'm clearest and most productive. Instead, I'll check email during the dull part ofthe day, mid-afternoon. That's when I'm least receptive, for the activities that could prove most distracting. And then with a non-receptive attitude for distractions, I'll look at emails.

I'll set a time limit to handle them. 15 minutes.   

I just closed my email ap. I'm feeling better already without that number of unread emails staring at me.

Comments

[Maria]

Thanks very much for the link. Glad you enjoyed the article. I'll have to check out the rest of the posts you linked to.

[Dave Cheong]

This is Dave Cheong - just dropping by to say thanks for linking to my site. I'm glad you have found the articles useful. :)