How To Stay Focused When There’s Too Much To Do?
The chaotic life will make us often feel stressed but difficult to keep the ability to focus. However, in many situations, we are forced to focus intensely to tackle a long list of pending tasks.
Don’t miss the tips on how to focus on working and studying effectively in the following article!
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What makes you lose your ability to concentrate at work?
You need focus to get through work or tackle everyday tasks. When you lose focus, you can’t think clearly about a particular task, figure out ways to solve problems, or maintain your attention at work.
Distractions often fall into the following causes:
- You are in a state of extreme stress
- Lack of sleep makes your brain process information slower
- You are deficient in Vitamin B to maintain energy
- Are you dependent on your phone and social media to distract yourself?
- Multitasking the wrong way
Besides, there are still many other reasons that come from diseases that make your body not want to work. And of course, if you can’t get back to high concentration in time, your work performance will also decrease.
Why is concentration so important?
There are many examples and benefits that show that your concentration is extremely necessary when working and studying.
High concentration helps you solve work faster, increase productivity and quality of work. Moreover, you can keep your mind alert, limit stagnation, reduce pressure and stress at work.
This can also be considered as a spiritual medicine to help you upgrade your abilities and be more successful in your career.
How to stay focused when you have too much work
Eliminate confounding factors
Phones, tablets or high-stimulus music are the cause of interference, making it difficult for you to concentrate on work.
Therefore, while working, it is best to temporarily turn off your phone, social networking applications, and strong music so that the flow of thoughts is not obstructed, affecting your concentration process.
In addition, every 50 minutes of work, you should give yourself a 5-10 minute break by getting up and walking, drinking a cup of tea, this will help the brain have time to rest to work more effectively.
Equip “effective assistants” in your workspace to help you stay focused
So what do you need to do? According to psychology, items in the workspace can help increase concentration levels unexpectedly! Buy these 05 items with Glints now!
Leather briefcase
When it comes to leather briefcases for files, who do you usually think of?
Business professionals, financial advisors are the most common images associated with this briefcase. They show a professional style with a transaction in a split second, even over the phone.
According to research results of David McRaney; the author of the book “ You Are Not Very Smart ”; From being associated with the image of a business professional, the leather briefcase always motivates us to work faster and more efficiently. This helps us practice concentration for longer.
Just reading through the article, you are still not convinced, right? Of course, this process only happens subconsciously. Why don’t you try changing to a leather briefcase right away?
Notebook and pen
Thanks to modern technology, we often take notes on our phones or computers. But in fact, when you have ideas that come to mind, you should focus your ideas on a notebook.
You can write letters or illustrate with doodles. That’s right, it’s about drawing whatever ideas you have.
Research by psychologist Jackie Andrade shows that we focus on remembering 29% better just by doodling! It also helps to develop creativity; improve writing speed; promote thinking and achieve high working efficiency.
Wired object rack
Such as headsets, USB ports, phone chargers. When you see things with tangled cords, your subconscious mind will also suddenly see things as messed up.
Try putting the messed up headset and cable next to it and see if it works. Can you focus on completing a task? And how long can you concentrate before getting distracted and starting to untangle those strings?
Bring nature to your workspace
Gitanjali Rajamani, CEO of GreenMyLife – one of the leading companies on the mission of bringing green gardens to everyone, once shared:
Decorating the workspace with potted plants increases focus by 20-45%.
In addition, plants also help to purify the air (because working spaces in closed rooms can easily create a feeling of suffocation), helping to increase both creativity and mood balance.
A wooden box
Glints will make a small confession: the wooden box works to improve your concentration, but in an indirect way.
A box for you to organize the sundries but you will always need like a folder; paper bookmarks; or even rubber bands. A more open working space is an opportunity for effective focus and development!
Make a priority list of tasks that need to be completed first
Making a to-do list can serve as a framework to help you carry out tasks in an orderly and systematic manner. Making a to-do list also prevents you from getting into a mess when you don’t know what to do first, what to do next, or if you don’t remember doing this or that.
Every night before you go to bed, make a bulleted list of all the things you need to get done the next day so you don’t get confused about what to focus on the next morning.
In addition, the habit of making a to-do list is also a way to help your brain work well, reducing forgetfulness.
Choose the idea that best fits your work goals
In the event that the work you need to tackle generates too many interesting ideas, you may end up getting tangled up in those ideas and not knowing what to choose. In the end, you become stuck, unable to concentrate, and the work that needs to be done cannot be completed.
To avoid this situation, first list all possible ideas to get the job done, then choose the one that best fits your goals and current situation.
For example: You need to interview characters to get actual material for an article with the topic: “How to retain talent in the business.”
With this job, you find you can get material in 3 ways:
- Interview with the head of the human resources department in your own company
- Select the subject who is the HR department/HR specialist with a long career in the industry at another company
- Interview an experienced headhunter in the industry you know
If you analyze the problem, you will see that the 2nd and 3rd methods seem to be quite time consuming because you have to contact and schedule an appointment with the character (in case they agree to receive an interview), while the article needs urgent payment. So only the first way helps you to achieve your goal, and does not take too much time, because you can immediately ask for help from your superiors. There will be no boss that will not help out so that employees can complete the work in the best way.
Stay focused with a notebook
Not only do you need a notebook to prioritize work, you also need another notebook to keep track of work progress. This book will help you to know how far your work is progressing, how many small work items have been done and not done to be able to complete the big work goal.
For example: Your Task A has 1, 2, 3, 4 items to complete. Every time you complete a section, tick a small mark next to it to mark that you have completed that section and move on to the next item.
Keeping a close eye on the progress of your work also helps you to keep up with deadlines and ensure that the work is completed cleanly and neatly, limiting unnecessary errors or omissions.
Design a timetable to improve team morale
In addition to the deadline given by the team leader, you should also set a deadline for yourself to divide the time to complete each job reasonably, avoiding the time to complete the tasks. be as desired.
Scheduling yourself also helps you keep up with progress with your team so you don’t fall behind or get left behind.
Apply the Pomodoro method
It sounds quite new, but the Pomodoro method has been applied quite popularly thanks to its extremely simple but effective implementation.
Similar to the concept of time management skills, Pomodoro is a method to help you maximize your time with high concentration at work. This is a time management technique developed by Francesco Cirillo – CEO of an Italian software company created in 1980.
With this method, you break down your time according to the following formula: Work 25 minutes, rest 5 minutes.
After 4 repetitions like this, you need to allow yourself to rest for 15-30 minutes before starting a new cycle.
The use of short breaks helps the body and brain to rest, limit overload, as well as increase the ability to exercise intensely.
Make sure the 25-minute working time is not disturbed or distracted by other agents by cleaning up the workspace, or turning off notifications from personal phones, etc.
Take a short break
Have you ever tried to focus on too much for a long time and felt tired after finishing?
Your concentration will gradually “cool down” if you do not have a reasonable rest method to “recharge” your brain. This will cause a feeling of depression that will make you demoralized at work. Not only that, but your performance is ultimately affected.
This is a sign of a lack of work energy, the body is warning you to rest.
Try to find a balance between life and work. Plan a vacation trip and put aside the work that needs to be solved.
It could be half a day, or even a few days, but make sure: you have made the most of the break, pulling back your mental focus.
Learn to let go of unnecessary things
Don’t be a “workaholic” or spread your preoccupation with too many unimportant things.
Treat your intense focus like a spotlight. If you shine that spotlight on a specific area, you can see everything very clearly.
However, if you try to shine that same amount of light across a large room, you can get dizzy seeing it all.
Relax properly, get enough sleep
Lack of sleep can easily disrupt concentration, not to mention other problems like memory loss, stress, etc.
Regularly not getting a good night’s sleep can affect your mood and work performance.
In addition, “trying too hard becomes too late” – “stretching” to work at any time also makes your body fall into a state of “overload”.
So, learn how to arrange and allocate your time in the day reasonably, balance between work and rest to keep the energy for a highly focused spirit the next day!
Physical training
Increased concentration is one of the many benefits of regular exercise.
Exercise benefits everyone. A 2018 study looking at 116 5th graders found evidence that daily physical activity can improve both concentration and attention after just 4 weeks.
Some physical activities you can consider include: running, cycling, yoga, cardio, swimming, etc.
Not only helps to keep your mind sharp and work effectively, exercising every day will help you have a healthy body, help you to shine more confidently.
This is a collection of ways to help you stay focused when you have too much to do. Do not forget to try to apply the suggestions above to always successfully complete everything assigned.
