Delegate authority
Pay attention to what work you can safely delegate to someone else. A busy person is quite overloaded with responsibilities and, as a result of his excessive responsibility, does not allow the situation to take its course. However, it is necessary to rationally distribute the load and be able to resolve simple issues by trusting your loved ones or subordinates. Determine what others can do for you and delegate your authority to them. This way, there won’t be so many unresolved issues on your to-do list. Only those that no one can handle better than you will remain on the agenda.Set your priorities
Once again, carefully study the list and consider all your plans. Pay attention to the urgency of each item and the importance of its implementation. Carefully analyze the situation and determine priority and priority tasks. Arrange them in descending order. Separately, write down on a piece of paper your immediate goal and the acceptable time frame for its completion, and put the list of your other tasks away. Now you have one specific goal in front of you and nothing distracts your attention from achieving it. When a person has his plans laid out and is not worried about the importance of doing anything else, then his actions will be practical and effective.Take it step by step
Get into the habit of focusing your efforts on only one thing and turning off your attention from those problems that can still wait. Break down your plans into steps that need to be completed to achieve your goal. This will make it easier to control the process of moving towards a given goal and monitor timely deadlines for its implementation. When you complete one task and achieve the expected results, you can safely take on the next one. Take things step by step and don't try to do everything at once.Good day, dear readers and guests of the blog.
Probably many people, including me, have faced the problem of being unable to concentrate on an important task. As soon as you sit down to do something, everything immediately distracts and interferes with you. You go to VKontakte for a second, or you want to watch one short video on YouTube and it drags on for a long time. And just a couple of hours ago you wanted to sit down quietly and work. And now you don’t want to do anything, another day has passed. You haven’t written a blog article, come up with new competitions, or haven’t written more than one page of the book you planned to write today.
And so we lose time day after day. And as we remember, time is the most valuable resource.
So what to do? How to learn to concentrate on business? How to learn to concentrate on important things? Are these the questions people ask themselves? And there are probably such people among the readers of my blog too. I asked myself such questions and one day I found answers to them in one of the blogs on the endless Internet.
As I understand it, there are many techniques, but I will tell you about two that I personally tried. One of them is called Pomodoro, it is also often called a tomato. And I called the other technique from Azamych (because I took it from books by Azamat Ushanov - “System of personal effectiveness of an Internet entrepreneur”). At their core, these systems are almost the same, but they have minor differences, which I will discuss below.
The Pomodoro technique was introduced by Francesco Cirillo in 1992. This technique was developed by him to improve personal efficiency. The essence of the technique is to learn to concentrate on important points and not be distracted by anything. It’s like we’re playing with ourselves by eating one tomato at a time.
The essence of the technique is to concentrate (focus) on one important thing.
To do this you need to follow the following rules:
- We set ourselves a task to work on
- We time ourselves for 25 minutes and work without distractions.
- Take a 5 minute break (required)
- We continue to work on the task for the next 25 minutes.
- At the end of 4 segments, we take a long break of 15-20 minutes.
In general, that's all the technology. You should eat tomatoes carefully and chew them thoroughly without being distracted by anything for 25 minutes, then rest for 5 minutes, even if you haven’t finished. Then we sit down to work on the task. And we eat the next tomato.
If you ate 4 tomatoes, rest for 15-20 minutes, completely take your mind off the task and don’t think about it. Walk around, stretch, read a book or eat something. And if the task is not finished, continue working.
This way you focus on one thing and work on it for 2 hours without distractions.
How to learn to concentrate on important matters using the Azamych method?
This method Perhaps it was invented a long time ago and it is called something else, but at the moment I called it that way because I learned it from Azamat Ushanov. The method is not much different from pomodoros, except that we work on the task for more time.
The essence of the method is exactly the same concentrate on one thing.
For this method we follow the following rules:
- Select an important task to work on
- We time ourselves for 45 minutes and work without distractions.
- Rest for 15 minutes (required)
- We continue to work further, another 45 minutes.
- We work for no more than 3 periods of time.
In principle, that’s all. That is, you work on a task, usually important, about the main task, concentrated for 3 hours. Moreover, at first you work for 45 minutes, then when the time comes, you rest for 15 minutes. You are completely distracted from what you are doing.
You can do squats, do push-ups, do some exercises for your eyes, go pour yourself some tea, eat something tasty, read a couple of pages of a book, etc. Let your brain rest, and it wouldn’t hurt for you to take a break from the computer (if you work on it). Then we sit down again and work. In three hours you will complete a lot of work.
Which way to choose for concentration?
On this question Everyone must answer for themselves by trying each of the concentration techniques. Personally, when I had a question about how to learn to concentrate and which technique to choose for this, I tried both techniques. And I use the second technique. Somehow the tomatoes didn’t work out for me. 25 minutes is not enough for me
I am writing this article using this technique. And I do the latest articles and other important actions using this technique, because it is very convenient. You sit and work and no one distracts you. Just don’t forget to close your contacts and mail, as well as turn off all available instant messengers and you can put your phone on silent mode, this is important in the modern world.
By the way, I measured all my breaks and work periods using a regular timer in my iPhone 5s, but already I ordered a regular kitchen timer, and it turned out even better. Moreover, its cost is only 260 rubles (at the time of writing).
It’s very convenient and you don’t forget to take a break from work. What technology do you use to concentrate on important things? Perhaps you have your own secrets? In any case, I look forward to your techniques, advice and suggestions in the comments to this post!
And one more important point, this article is the first article from the new section “”, which will be updated as new techniques and methods appear that are designed to help people improve their working time and the ability to do what is important and necessary.
In this section, I'll also write about Evernote and how to use it to organize all the information you need, as well as describe how I work with Wunderlist task setting software. Well, that's not all, I have examples of using a regular diary for super productive work in educational process from my cadet years
In general, be sure to subscribe to blog updates at the end of this article and you will definitely not miss anything interesting and important for yourself.
ZY By the way, if you finish work on a task earlier, you can sit down and do what you have been putting off for a long time. And then reward yourself with something
Surely you have noticed that on some days work and other tasks are completed by themselves. There are also extremely unproductive periods, during which even the usual duties seem especially difficult and tedious. Don't rush to blame everything on magnetic storms and lack of inspiration. In fact, you can control your attention. Don't know how to focus on work or an important matter? We are ready to advise you.
Set up your workplace correctly
Before you get started, take a look around. Many freelancers who work outside the office proudly declare that they simply do not have a workplace. The prospect of working in a cozy chair or on a park bench seems tempting to many. But in fact, it is very difficult to concentrate in such an informal environment. Advice for all people working from home: be sure to organize workplace, if you haven't done so before. Let it be a small table with a computer and everything necessary for your activities. Keep only work papers and documents in this place.
Office workers should take the time to do regular cleaning. If you often find it difficult to concentrate, you should clear your desk of souvenirs and various personal items. Leave only what you need during the work process. It is important that the workplace is comfortable. The table and chair should be adjusted to your height. If you work on a computer, place the monitor at the optimal distance from your eyes and experiment with brightness settings. Keep your desk clean. If possible, try to dine here or do personal business as little as possible. This table and chair should only be associated with professional activities.
Ignore the temptations of virtual space
How to concentrate on working at the computer when there are so many temptations in front of your eyes? Many people complain that they work extremely unproductively due to the fact that they are distracted a lot by personal email, social media or instant messaging programs. Try to develop willpower and not open any third-party sites or applications while working. If this happens by itself, you can install one of the programs with the “parental control” function. If you don't need the Internet for work, you can simply turn it off.
Often a random thought provokes a distraction from the main activity. How to resist searching for information on the Internet if you remember about some everyday problem or decide to book movie tickets? Look for answers to personal questions in World Wide Web costs during non-working hours. This rule applies to both online orders and ticket bookings. If the matter is urgent, dedicate your
Minimize external stimuli
You are unlikely to be able to concentrate on the main thing in a noisy room. If you are working at home or preparing for an exam, turn off the TV and ask your household members to keep the noise down. Some people find it more pleasant to work while listening to quiet music. This is an individual question. If you feel uncomfortable being in absolute silence, you can play a soft melody without words or a collection of songs in a language you don’t know. The most difficult thing to concentrate is for office workers who are forced to share an office with other employees. Ask your colleagues not to disturb you when you are busy with important work. If the room is noisy enough, you can wear headphones to play calm music. An extravagant option is earplugs. But why not try using them when it comes to your professional productivity? Train your relatives and friends not to call you during work hours for non-essential matters. If you work from home, it is appropriate to notify all family members about the start of the working day and ask them not to disturb you.
Maintain a work activity schedule
No person can be productive 24 hours a day. We are all not robots, and each of us needs time to rest. It is necessary to take regular breaks during the working day. The best option is to devote 45 minutes to work, then rest for 10-15 minutes. During breaks, it is most useful to get up from the table and walk around, do light exercises or go out into the fresh air. You can use this time for a snack or some personal matters, such as making a call or checking Email. Some office workers admit that during breaks they do self-massage for the neck, eye exercises or meditate. The most important thing is not to get carried away and get back to work on time. If you have to concentrate and do a lot of small things, the work-rest time intervals can be changed. Try resting for 5 minutes after every 20-25 minutes of work.
Proper planning is the key to success
A popular question among people interested in increasing personal productivity is: How can I focus on work when all I can think about is where to start? One of the secrets of highly effective people is proper planning. Spend no more than 5 minutes a day making a to-do list and try to stick to it. By using daily planning, you will always know what still needs to be done and become less distracted. If your job involves doing a lot of different tasks and assignments, you can make a daily list in the morning right at your workplace. You can stop wasting time thinking about the work process by making detailed plans with sub-items. Agree, even the most difficult task will cease to seem so if you break it down into several insignificant and easy to complete ones.
Motivation that works
Any manager knows how important it is to properly motivate their employees. So why don't you become your own boss? Develop your own system of rewards and punishments. Are all tasks completed on time? Excellent, buy yourself some chocolate and read interesting book or go to bed early. If you couldn’t concentrate completely, put off some purchase planned for your soul or deprive yourself entertainment program for evening. Rewards and punishments should be tailored individually. The prize promised for completing the work should really attract you and encourage you to fulfill all the terms of the contract with yourself. Don't forget to think about the future. A great incentive to work faster and better is to remember what career prospects await you. There is another option - just don’t forget that you are working for money.
Feel free to praise yourself and be proud of your own successes
“If you don’t praise yourself, no one will praise you” - this proverb has a very deep meaning. Celebrate your own successes, you can even start keeping a personal diary of achievements. Get a separate notebook and write down the successes of your day in it every evening. Did you get one more thing done than you planned, or worked 10% faster than usual? You are well done! You can share your personal successes with someone close to you. Find someone who will listen with interest to your story and praise you. Such support will become additional motivation.
Work playfully
The question of how to focus on the work process is not usually asked by people who love their work. Agree, it’s always nice to do something interesting. But sometimes it happens that even the most beloved work gets boring. If you like computer or interactive games, we invite you to get creative. Break your usual working day into separate “quests”. Don't forget to enjoy every victory and move to the next level. Another great option for increasing productivity is to compete with one of your colleagues. You can offer a workmate a bet with some interesting prize. But if you communicate with colleagues on business, it is better to keep the competition a secret.
Help your brain tune in to the work process
In order to do quality work, you need to create everything for yourself the necessary conditions. won't help you if you haven't taken care of yourself. In order to maximize your potential, you need to be in good physical shape. Don't even expect to be productive if you're not feeling well. Exemption from work during illness was invented for a reason. Try to get enough sleep and take care of your own health. Ventilate your office regularly. Physiological needs should not distract you from your work. Have a snack in a timely manner, drink tea or coffee during breaks. Always keep a clean one on hand drinking water. When you need to focus on work, you can try using aromatherapy. It is believed that tea tree helps to concentrate best. Just add a few drops to the aroma lamp and enjoy the unobtrusive aroma.
Don't demand the impossible from yourself
No amount of advice on how to focus on work or school will help you quickly if you haven't slept for days or have just experienced extreme stress. Try not to overexert yourself and get quality rest. If something extreme and extraordinary happens, it makes sense to completely refuse to continue working and ask to go home. Of course, we are talking about some serious and unexpected incidents. But when you can’t concentrate quickly due to some trivial problems, you should start cultivating your own character. Don't take the little things in life to heart and don't try to be a hero when you don't need to. Love your job and try to do it well. This is the main secret of productivity.
The ability to concentrate is an important part of a successful person's arsenal. Having learned to concentrate, to concentrate on a particular goal, a certain type of activity, you have a very good chance of achieving success in this.
In this article we:
A) Let's discuss why the ability to concentrate is so important.
B) Let's figure out what factors prevent us from concentrating.
C) Let’s think about how to eliminate factors that interfere with concentration.
D) Finally, let's develop a general strategy that will help us learn to focus.
What is the role of the ability to concentrate?
(Perhaps you will immediately scream to yourself: what is the role?!!! And so it’s clear!!! Let’s get closer to the point!!! Have a little patience: let’s deal with everything in order. We want to learn how to concentrate, right? So, there is no need to get distracted, you need to read in order. Well, I’m finishing the protracted introduction.)
Physiological scientists have established that a person’s performance changes during work. The first ten to fifteen minutes is the so-called burn-in period, the next 20-30 minutes are optimal performance, and after some time exhaustion sets in.
What is the situation with performance and work efficiency during these periods?
Run-in: increases
Middle phase: highest
Exhaustion: Decreases
Taking this into account, you should work in periods of about an hour, so that, firstly, good development occurs, then you work hard and practice a little to fight mild fatigue. Then you need to pause, rest a little and start a new cycle.
I think there is no need to explain that by being distracted, we disrupt the natural course of this cycle. If we are distracted once every 15 minutes, we run the risk of never achieving maximum performance - and therefore not seeing decent results. What kind of effective work is this...
As you can see, a person purely physiologically (that is, if we consider him as a kind of “biorobot” :)))) must work with concentration, without distraction.
What about from a psychological point of view? It's not hard to guess. The business that captivates us, the business that captivates us, occupies all our thoughts (that is, the thing on which you are focused) is done much easier, the process of work itself gives you pleasure - it’s interesting to work!
So, perhaps the first commandment of a person who wants to succeed in one thing or another: productivity requires concentration on one subject!
What prevents us from focusing?
1. External factors that interfere with concentration
- noise, music
— neighbors and colleagues asking questions
- ICQ and phone
- something else that requires your attention, competes for attention with the thing that needs to be done.
2. Internal factors that interfere with concentration (ATTENTION!!!)
- general poor health
- lack of a clear activity plan
- unbalanced emotional state
- disinterest in work
The lists go on. By the way, if you really want to learn how to concentrate properly, I advise you to minimize the browser window, open a piece of Word or Notepad and write a small list under the heading “What prevents me from concentrating.” I emphasize that it doesn’t hinder you in general, but what prevents you from doing a specific thing, focusing on a specific job.
I got this list:
1. I have more interesting things to do (surf the Internet, play with a new toy). I don’t do this, but my thoughts keep coming back to me.
2. Work does not give me satisfaction.
3. I did it yesterday and it just makes me bored - the routine drags on.
However, I understand that it is necessary to do it. Here we are not discussing how to force yourself to do this or that thing (victory over laziness and gaining motivation is a topic for a separate discussion).
So, smoothly, we got to the main thing.
How do you still concentrate?
How can you learn not to get distracted, do your job effectively, focus on important things and not waste time?
Now I’ll try to be brief;))) Everything that is written above can be considered an introduction, here is the essence.
1. We provide ourselves with a good workplace. Ask your family and friends not to disturb you if you are working from home, and gently let your colleagues know that you don’t really like being interrupted. Explain to them that you yourself are distracted every hour and are ready to discuss with them anything they want. You can also casually explain to them why it is so important (for you and for them) to focus on work.
2. We work in periods of an hour, with a break of 10 minutes. This type of work organization best promotes concentration. It may be difficult at first not to be distracted for a whole hour - be patient, developing the ability to concentrate does not come so easily.
3. We provide ourselves with the necessary psychological attitude. Everything needs to be removed internal factors that make it difficult to concentrate. Feel like your work really matters to you. Focus on the results it brings (salary, job growth, position in society).
4. Always have a clear work plan: you must know how much, what and when you have to do. This will help you focus not just on the work, but on the result and you will strive for it, because after achieving the goal for the day (not necessarily for the day) you will receive a reward. You've done the job - feel free to go to ICQ! =)))
5. Start working as early as possible!!! Start your planned tasks in the morning or from the moment you arrive at work. Let there be no distracting activities between starting work and waking up. Don't allow yourself to check your email as soon as you sit down at your computer. Do not open ICQ or reader. The way you start your day will affect the rest of your day. Once you set a working, business-like tone, it will become much easier to concentrate (For me, this point turned out to be the most effective. Perhaps the fact is that it came from experience, and was not deduced logically. Therefore, I advise you not only to read and apply my or someone else’s then some advice, but also try to find your own methods by observing yourself and doing experiments).
6. Another secret from me personally, a continuation of the previous one. You need to focus on important matters not when you sit down at the table, but in bed. Think about your work, try to evoke positive emotions in yourself towards it. Tell yourself that you will do it with interest, with fervor, with passion. That you show creativity and a truly original approach that your colleagues and clients will appreciate.
P.S. Please note that in this article we talked about how to learn to concentrate, what prevents you from concentrating on work, etc. - seems to be a narrow topic, a kind of life hack that fits into standard recommendations like “10 ways to unscrew a light bulb” (“10 tips on how to concentrate on work”))))), but in the end it turned out that this “narrow topic” is very closely associated with motivation in a healthy way life (to focus you need to be in good health - see above), planning and time management.
Hence the main conclusion: if you want to be successful in general, and not just be able to screw in light bulbs well, then you need to constantly see such relationships and, while optimizing one area of your life, casually put things in order in the rest. And, of course, don’t rely only on someone else’s advice. Even on mine;))))) Think and experiment! And yes, also comment;)) If you have something to say about concentration and more, welcome to the comments!
May also come in handy.
The Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset wrote:
Every fate is tragic in the deepest sense of the word for one who does not penetrate into the essence of life, but only skims its surface.
Alarming symptoms
How often during a conversation do you want to interrupt a person with words “in short” or “get to the point”? Do you often grab your smartphone while watching an interesting series or movie, don’t listen to people, but only fake attention, get irritated over trifles?
Our attention has become so unfocused that it is sometimes difficult for us to keep it on one thing for more than 10 minutes. If you think it's ok for modern world, then we hasten to upset you.
These are the first symptoms of attention deficit disorder. Consider these the letters SOS, which say that the “muscle” of attention urgently needs to be taken to the “gym.”
The Cost of Distraction
Do you know that average person wastes almost two out of eight hours during the workday? Half of this time he moves from one site to another. Inc. Magazine thought that total costs idleness in the US alone amounts to $544 billion.
The average person is distracted 200 times during the day. At the same time, 118 times we reach for our smartphone with our playful little hands, 52 times we are distracted by friends, relatives and colleagues, and 30 distractions are our everyday needs. For example, we suddenly become interested in how old Matt Damon is, and we drop everything and go to Wikipedia.
How to learn to concentrate
Our brain, fortunately, has such a thing as neuroplasticity. To put it simply: regular practice can change everything.
Learn something
The easiest way to improve concentration and attentiveness is to start doing something that has not been done before. For example, if you drive a car with an automatic transmission, change to a car with a manual transmission. Use your imagination: sign up for salsa lessons, master the salmon farfalle recipe.
Fight entropy
Our brain is designed in such a way that if it sees a lack of structure somewhere, it begins to worry. He wants to find structure in everything: he needs all his tasks to be written down in a diary, so that on his computer desktop and in yours, he needs a clear daily schedule, he needs to understand what time he will be fed.
Do you know, for example, that a messy room directly affects excess weight? This makes sense: the more disorder, the more stress and entropy. So take the time to create structure in everything.
Don't forget about empathy
And one more thing that helps us concentrate. Empathy and deep, harmonious relationships with people make us more balanced and focused.
When we care about other people, we feel calm and happy. So another way to stay focused is to have a sincere desire to help other people.
What's the result?
Today it is critically important to be able to control your mind, develop it in accordance with your desires, and not with the whims of others, to be able to resist the sucking effect of the whirlpool of useless information, worthless ideas and empty chatter. Having developed within yourself the ability to be in a state that allows you not only to create new ideas, but also to bring them to reality, you will be able to control life without letting it control you.
Focus on worthwhile ideas. And truly take control of your life.