It is very tricky to remain focused in your workplace. Whether you are working from an office set up or your home. There are phone calls to return and emails to respond to, not to mention the allure of sending a short text or WhatsApp message to a friend.
Minor distractions may appear to be innocuous. After all, what is five minutes out of the entire 8 hours? However, frequent interruptions can wreak havoc on your productivity and degrade the quality of your work.
If you find yourself getting distracted at work very often, don’t worry, this article is meant for you. We explore the top ten ways to avoid distraction while working. If you follow them keenly, you will end up leading a more productive life and do more work during the same 8 hours long day period.
1. Associate with productive people at work.
Focus or lack of it is contagious. If you hang around with people who idle around the workplace, they will also drag you into their behavior. And within no time, you will find yourself doing what they are doing. Therefore, it is essential that while at work, you distance yourself from the lazy or idlers.
If you have some work to do, sit by yourself in your office or a quiet corner. Alternatively, you can sit with those busy people, so that they will inspire you to concentrate on your job too.
2. Divide your work into smaller chunks.
Another easy way to avoid distractions is to divide your bigger goals into smaller achievable goals. When you have smaller targets on your schedule, you will be more motivated to work towards them. Bigger goals will discourage you very much, especially when you realize they are not achievable.
To do this, simply divide your core objective into its respective activities. Look at each activity as a sub-objective to the bigger objective. This way, you will have quick wins, and it will motivate you to do more.
3. Switch of all notifications.
Social media and our phones are the most significant sources of distraction. When you hear a social media chat pop, you will be tempted to read it. That will cost you over 5 minutes of your time that you will never recover.
Suppose you are working on a serious project. Consider switching off all your notification. Avoid anything that will pop or interfere with your attention. I prefer putting my phone on silent, and all calls go straight to voice mail to avoid distracting me at my peak working hours.
4. Set clear boundaries at your workplace.
When you are working on tight schedules, you should let everyone understand that you are not available. You can do this by ensuring everyone knows when not to talk to you. During the productive hours of the morning, your mind will be active and will be able to achieve more work than later in the day.
That way, it is easy to block all the productive hours from people. And letting them know that if they don’t have anything important to tell you during those hours, they shouldn’t distract you.
5. Allow yourself some health breaks.
Working for long hours can be counterproductive. You should allow your body and mind to re-charge after a certain period. When working on a lengthy project, it is good to take 15 to 20 minutes breaks between tasks to ensure you are well energized.
Burnout will occur if you try to work for long hours without rest. During this break, avoid checking your phone or email. Take a walk outside, do some exercise or just take a nap. You will come back to your workspace feeling good and psyched up for the next task at hand.
6. Set time limits for particular tasks.
As described above, it is good to divide your tasks into smaller achievable chunks. To make it even better, you should set time limits for the individual activities that lead to the bigger goal. I use the Pomodoro timer to help me concentrate on my work.
How does it work? The Pomodoro timer is based on the concept of dividing your work hours into 25 minutes with 5-minute breaks in between. After four sessions (1 Pomodoro), you take 15 minutes break). This allows you to consistently deliver on the work at hand and reduce the temptation of engaging in other activities within the 25 minutes.
7. Do not reply to request immediately.
To wade of destructions, you should learn to avoid things that are not urgent and important at the same time. For instance, you can get an email that is not necessarily urgent. You can put it away until when you finish your job before you respond to it.
You should not respond to chats and instant messages immediately.
8. Learn to Say No.
Another easy way of avoiding distractions is by learning to say NO. When your in-tray is full of requests, you should delegate some jobs to someone who can do it better. Then use the time to concentrate on the most productive work on your schedule.
When you don’t say no to the continuous incoming requests, they will continue piling. People will prefer sending work your way because they know you will take it all. You should be bold enough and tell them NO when you think you are all swamped up.
9. Stick to your schedule.
This has more to do with self-management. In order to concentrate on your work, you need to have some self-management skills yourself. Learn to put everything that is not important away and work on those things that earn your more.
If you can set your schedule and stick to it no matter what happens, you will avoid distractions and end up achieving a lot in that period. Everything worthwhile should begin with a plan, and you will want space and environment suitable to developing specific goals.
Self-management is all about being goal-oriented, and self-control is being actively aware of what you’re doing and how you’re spending your time. With a better level of self-management, you always know what is required to complete a task and how it was completed.
Furthermore, you want to perform better; therefore you will ask yourself whether the task was completed on schedule and within budget. You also need to know if everyone was involved and satisfied with the outcome.
10. Prioritize your work.
Prioritizing your work will help you stay organized and focused on the essential tasks ahead. Always work on those tasks that are very important. Some tasks will look urgent, but they are not necessary. At the same time, others will be important yet not urgent.
Once you have divided your activities for the say into chunks, prioritize each activity depending on the nature of the specific task. Doing this routinely will help you plan better and delegate or completely ignore those tasks that don’t add to your greater goal.
Prioritization helps you to focus your energy on tasks based on their impact on the overall project. Those activities that don’t carry much weight should be avoided entirely since they will only distract you from achieving your overall goal.
Conclusion
Developing good habits is essential for avoiding distractions, especially when working. Make clear guidelines before beginning your work. You should define your boundaries and availability right from the start. Let your colleagues know the time that you will least wish to be distracted with requests.
I also take personal initiative and self-management of the highest order to remain focused. All these actions are pegged on the plan you make ahead of your job. Therefore, you should put more hours into planning your work than actually doing it. This will help you to foresee the sources of destruction and make early plans on how to avoid them.
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