Keeping Focussed at work

​Keeping focussed at work is difficult. You start the day with the best intentions and all it takes is an email, teams message or phone call and your whole plan has gone out of the window.

In fact, according to The Economist, we lose 28% of our workday to multi-tasking and distraction.

And we’ve all been there:

• 9am you start working on that presentation
• 9:12am you respond to an email
• 9:17am you’re researching something quickly
• 9:32am you’re back to your presentation
• 9:47am you’re replying to a teams message

Here are 3 practical strategies to get back to ending the day having achieved what you set out to achieve:

1. Create Deep Work Blocks: Create “containers” of focus time in your calendar. No meetings or email allowed. Just blocked out space to work on your most important tasks.

2. Within your Deep Work Blocks "schedule" tasks as self-appointments. "Show-up" for them as you would with someone else. "Single-task" and only work on the appointment topic. Respect yourself as much as you respect others.

3. Optimize Your Environment: Create a designated workspace free from clutter. During your self-appointments, disable notifications on your phone and PC. Block out noise with headphones if needed.

Our productivity and focus is under attack in our “always on” world. If you use the steps above you'll add back 13 weeks to your life every year...thats 10 years over a career.