Why Focus Is Your Greatest Competitive Advantage at Work (Plus 19 Ways To Actually Do It)
Unlocking your potential at work often hinges on one crucial factor: focus. Discover why this often overlooked skill can be your secret weapon in the competitive corporate world, and explore 19 practical strategies to harness its power for your professional growth.
Only keep one tab open at time.
Single-tabbing raises the barrier to task switching since you’ll have to close what you’re currently working on in order to start working on something else.
- It’s a concrete way to make sure that you’re only working on what you intentionally decided to be working on.
Turn off notifications
This will reduce the time and mental focus lost in attention-switching even for a second.
- If the thought of turning your phone off gives you palpitations, at least turn on priority notifications so you don’t miss anything important.
Use two computers.
One computer is where you do work and productive things. Unproductive things are blocked on this computer.
- Another computer is for unproductive things (i.e. Facebook, etc.)
- Close your iPad and do focused work on your regular computer.
Theme your days
One way to single-task your way through multiple concurrent projects is to theme your days.
- Assign each of the days of the week a general theme to give your mind clues as to what to place precedence on each day before you even have to look at your to do list.
Keep a timer on your tasks
Timesheets can be a powerful single-tasking tool whether or not you bill your time hourly.
- Use a time-tracking app like Toggl to commit to focusing on one task at a time, and integrate with other productivity tools like Todoist.
Use separate desktop spaces.
Limit yourself to four desktops only: one for communication windows (Gmail, Slack, Todoist, Sunrise Calendar), and the other three for the windows associated with different projects you plan to work on that day.
- Add a different background to each desktop so you know exactly which task you are focusing on.
Take regular breaks throughout the day
Studies have shown that the longer we work without breaks, the more prone to distraction we become
- Scheduling breaks to refocus on the task at hand encourages us to stay mindful of our objectives and reliably contributes to better performance
- Take a few seconds to think globally about what you’re ultimately trying to achieve
Work offline whenever possible
Whenever you do have a task that doesn’t require the Internet, no good can come from staying connected
How to Build a Rock-Solid Single-Tasking Habit
Four essential components of effective single-tasking
- Cutting out distractions
- Make a single-tasking plan you’ll stick to
- Dealing with unavoidable distractions and getting back on track when you’ve fallen off the single task wagon
The tl;dr summary
Cut out distractions
- Use Freedom or another service to block distracting sites, turn off all of your notifications, and schedule your email time
- Make a single-tasking plan each and every day
- Limit self-interruptions
- Set aside unstructured time during the day or week to review these lists
- Get back on track
- Schedule regular breaks into your day to re-focus
Learn how to overcome distractions and hone your focus
Context switching is to productivity what smoking is to your health
- Trying to focus on more than one thing at a time reduces your productivity by as much as 40%
- The average desk job employee loses 2.1 hours a day to distractions and interruptions
- 44% of those work distractions are self-inflicted
- You have complete control to cut out 67% of the productivity-killing distractions that derail your workday
- One skill that will set you apart from 99% of distraction-prone knowledge workers is the ability to ruthlessly single-task
- Effective single-tasking requires planning
- It forces you to prioritize and consider what tasks have the highest impact on your work
Keep a “read later” list
Save articles for later.
- Use a combination of Pocket, Evernote, and Todoist
- All of these tools have browser extensions that will allow you to save articles and add tags based on subject so you’ll remember to come back to them later.
Set aside exploratory time
Unfocused, agenda-free thinking time is essential for creativity and professional development.
- Schedule blocks of time in your calendar for reading and return to it at the time you’ve blocked off
- This turns reading from a potentially endless time-suck into a carefully managed “task”
Keep a to-do list with focused, actionable items
make time to review your current projects and identify the next concrete task you need to complete.
- Visualize your tasks one at a time by writing them on sticky notes.
- Daily review can pay dividends throughout the day.
Visualize your to-do’s one at a time
move your “to-done” post-its to the corner of your desk to visualize how much you’ve accomplished.
- This helps you feel motivated during the post-lunch productivity doldrums.
Fight apps with more apps
Don’t trust yourself to simply avoid the distracting sites you’re in the habit of visiting
Forgive yourself
When your day hasn’t gone according to plan, give yourself permission to just let it go.
- Practice self-compassion when you haven’t accomplished as much as you want to, and this can correspond to more productive behaviors on similar tasks in the future.
Schedule your daily to-do’s
Set aside a specific time for each task, so you know exactly what to give your full attention to at any given moment of the day
Create unrealistically short deadlines
Give yourself less time to complete tasks to stay focused
Keep a “bright ideas” repository
Follow up on ideas as they occur to you, but don’t rush them.
- Use a combination of Todoist and pen and paper to capture thoughts and ideas that you want to revisit later, and commit them to your mental to-do list.
Schedule your email time
Check your email only twice a day between 11am and 4:30pm.
- During this time, handle any emails that will take 2-minutes or less and add everything else to your to-do list to focus on later.