6 unconventional ways to build focus, resilience, and calm in 2021
The past year has been full of stress, anxiety, and unwelcome changes to the way we work and live. Yet one thing we’ve learned is that when life becomes uncertain, the best thing to do is invest in yourself. Here are hidden gems you can take into 2021 that will help you rebuild your focus, develop mental resilience, and find a sense of calm in an otherwise stormy world.
Develop an ‘indifferent’ attitude to the things you can’t change
While no one’s saying you can ignore a crisis of health or at work, you can help to minimize the impact by instead focusing on what you can control: your strengths, interests, and purpose.
- Focus on your strengths
- Use your journal to analyze your beliefs
- Journaling daily is a key part of developing mental toughness
Take advantage of the flexibility of remote work by matching your internal clock to your workday
Productivity is rarely a time issue, but an energy one. You aren’t lacking the time to do things, you’re lacking the energy.
- Your daily energy levels are dictated by your chronotype-a variation in your Circadian Rhythm that determines when your body needs rest.
Create hard boundaries on excessive emails, all-day Zoom calls, and late-night work
We need boundaries in our lives to make sure we can leave work at work and spend time on the people, projects, and interests that fill our lives with meaning
- Here are a few pieces of advice to help you in the near future.
What are your goals for 2021?
New Year’s resolutions have always been difficult to keep up with.
For your passion: Focus on helping others
Helping others can shine a light when you’re feeling stressed and overwhelmed.
- Susan David, a founder of the Harvard/McLean Institute of Coaching, suggests you should reflect on the people you work with and why you feel good about connecting with them.
Deprioritize tasks that are bringing you stress without any return
Set limits on how long you’ll work on projects and tasks
- Create a ‘not to do’ list
- Use a weekly review to reassess your priorities
- Isolate only the most impactful elements of important tasks or projects
- Ask your team or boss what they think is important
For your creativity: Give yourself permission to fill the well
Find things that bring you joy and help you disconnect from work
- A walk in nature, playing a game online, or even taking off an afternoon to watch movies can all help you fill the creative well
Use the ‘scientific method’ to find your ideal working habits
Scientists run experiments in a controlled environment so they can track results and know exactly what happened and why
- This process is called the Scientific Method and can be used to answer any question
- Question: What do you want to answer?
- Research: Build context around the question by reading blog posts, listening to podcasts, or looking elsewhere for potential solutions
- Hypothesis: Pick a strategy to try and suggest what you think will happen
- Experiment: Set a time period and some rules for your experiment and make sure you can track your results using a tool like RescueTime
- Analyze results: Dig into your data and adjust, try, or form a new hypothesis
Rebuild your passion and curiosity after burning out
When you’re professionally burnt out, you lose all motivation to work.
- Likewise, the pandemic has been mentally and physically draining and it’s impossible to think that you can push it aside and operate at 100%.
- Millions of people have come back from burnout and found new ways to be motivated, focused, and creative.
For your focus: build your day around an ‘anchor task’
Make progress on a task-no matter how small-is a powerful way to rebuild your motivation and help you stay focused.
- Atomic Habits author James Clear calls this finding an “anchor task” because it is the one non-negotiable thing that must get done.