Do you have a habit of zoning out during Zoom meetings? After three readings of the same email, you still haven't read a single word? Spending two hours on something that could have taken only one? All of these are symptoms that you're losing your concentration.
The good news is that you can regain and maintain attention throughout your workday with a little effort. Here's how to do it:
Stop focusing half-heartedly.
The biggest saboteur of all is half-focus, which is especially frequent during Zoom sessions. Consider how frequently you find yourself multitasking in meetings and not paying full attention to the discourse. That's called half-focusing, and it's hurting your productivity because you're not giving either work your complete concentration.
Keep your attention on one task at a time, no matter how tedious it is. You'll get it done and out of the way faster if you give it your entire concentration. If you're having trouble concentrating, stand up and wander about for a few minutes. A change of environment mixed with movement, even if it's only moving from one room in your house to another, helps to clear your mind and reset your attention.
However, there are a few situations where half-focusing is appropriate. Half-focus is appropriate in situations like a meeting that really should have been an email or a department-wide meeting where not all of the information is relevant to your work.
Take care of disruptions.
Every interruption, no matter how insignificant, disrupt your concentration. While it's hard to eliminate all distractions, limiting them has a significant impact on your productivity.
To begin, restrict the number of notifications you receive on your phone, as this is the most common source of distraction. Turn off anything that isn't work-related, and consider muting all notifications for a few hours each day so you can focus completely. Share your schedule with your partner and children so that they are aware of when you are working and when you are not.
Experiment with different tools to help you stay focused.
Listen to music—studies have shown that music can help you concentrate, and there are even playlists created specifically for this purpose. If you don't want to be distracted by lyrics, listen to instrumental music. Noise-canceling headphones can help you stay focused on your work by shutting out the audio distractions around you.
Block sites that aren't related to your work with a focus plugin for your browser – If you try to check Twitter and it's on your blocked list, all you'll see is a blurred-out screen with a reminder to get back to work.
Breaks should be planned.
The longer you work without taking a break, the more difficult it becomes to concentrate. Throughout the day, your brain requires time to unplug from work. Make a conscious effort to schedule and take breaks, as simply placing them on your calendar and working through them will not yield any results. If you find yourself needing to work through a scheduled break, make sure to take it after you've completed the assignment.
Reduce the number of hours you work.
Unfortunately, several studies have revealed that we are now working more hours at home than we were at work. The workday is an office that had a very definite start and end time, so by 5:00 p.m., you'd be trying to finish up your job for the day so you could leave and go home.
It's easy to stretch the workweek both sooner and later now that home is the office. Just because you have the ability to work does not imply you should. The lack of a clear end date can actually make it difficult to stay focused. There is less urgency to buckle down and work when there is no definite finish to the workweek. Fix this problem by setting aside a specific time each day to finish your work and sticking to it.
Most importantly, don't be too hard on yourself if you have a day where you can't seem to find your focus no matter how hard you try. Schedule a few more breaks, get as much work done as possible, then try again tomorrow.
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