BoostYourProductivity

Focus&TimeManagement
Focus

1.Meditation Pick an amount of time you can commit to meditating daily. Its important that youre consistent and disciplined in your practice. Commit to sticking with your schedule for 30 days. If you slip up, start counting again at day 1. After those 30 days you can assess whether it has helped increase your focus or otherwise addedvaluetoyourlife.Ifithasnt,itmakessensetostop.Ifithas,continuewithit;itshouldbemucheasier to continue once youve already done it for 30 days. This 30day rule is a good trick for trying to get yourself intohabitsyouwanttoadopt.

Meditationpractice(515minforbeginners)

Sitinanypositionthatsstableandcomfortablewithoutexertingmucheffort.Ifpossible,avoidleaningon anything (that way if you start drifting off to sleep, your body will start to slump and you are more likely tojerkbackawake). Breatheinandoutafewtimesandletyourbodyrelax. Do not try to control your rate or strength of breathing, just breathe naturally and observe as the air fills yourlungsandthenstreamsbackout. Close your eyes or focus your gaze on some stable point in front of you and start by counting every out breathupto21. If you ever get lost in thought, become uncertain of which number youre on or count over 21 without intendingto,bringyourfocusbacktoyourbreathandstartoverfrom1. Ifyouhavegreatdifficultmaintainingthecount,trycountingboththeinbreathandoutbreath.

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Donottrytoblockoutexternalsensations(suchassounds)orstopbackgroundthoughts.Donotworryif thoughtssometimescometobemoreprominentinyourawarenessthanthebreathsensations.Youronly taskistomaintainanawarenessofthebreaththatisascontinuousaspossible. It is important to remember you are working a focus and willpower muscle here. Dontberateyourself when your mind wanders. Instead, you shouldgently let go of the line of thought and redirect your attention to the breath. Cultivate happiness at the fact that younoticedyour mind wandering and appreciation for the mental faculty that allowed you to do so. Attempting to punish yourself for allowing yourmindtowanderwillnotmakeyourmindlesslikelytowanderinthefutureandwillmakeyourmind moreagitated.Performthesameprocedureifyoufindyourselffrustrated/annoyed/irritatedorbored.

There are many meditation techniques out there; experiment and find what works best for you. And work to sticktothemeditationscheduleyousetforyourself.

2.Specifygoalsandbreakthemintoactionablesubgoals Its hard to focus if you dont know what to focus on. Specifying goals and chunking them into subgoals is a good way to avoid this problem. Get explicit about your goals: write them down. Then figure out what steps/subgoals you need to accomplish in order to achieve your larger goal. Sounds simple, but its an importantstepmostdonttake.

Now look atthe item at the top of your list. Do you feel motivated to work on that task, andcanyouvisualize yourselfworkingonit?Ifnot,breakitdownintosmallertasksuntilyoudo. o Sojo is a great resource for helping you get through different hurdles at different points in your planningandexecutionprocess:http://www.thesojo.net/

3.Createadistractionfreetimeandspace. Identify what might be distracting you and figure out what can be eliminated either permanently or during the hours you most need to stay focused. Disable instant alarms, put your phone on silent and even temporarily disable your internet connection for a set amount of time while you work on activities that demand focus like writing or editing. Carve out a time you plan to work on these highfocus steps, write it downandthendoyourbesttoeliminatedigitalandrealworlddistractionswhileyouworkonit.

4.Exercise&diet Regular exercise aids focus. In the mediumlong term it keeps your energy up, improves focus and can help alleviatefeelingsofbeingoverwhelmedandfrazzled,whichcanbedebilitatingtoproductivity.Gettingaerobic exercisefor3060minutes34daysaweeksgivesyouahugefocusadvantage.Eventakinga510minutewalk outsidebeforesettlingdownandenteringyournodistractionzonecanbehelpfulinkeepingyoufocusedand ontask;theboostfromexerciseshouldmorethanpayforthetimeittakesup.

TimeManagement

Diet is also important for managing energy and focus. The earlier you get into good diet habits, the better. Herearesomegoodtipsonhealthyeatinghabits:http://www.helpguide.org/life/healthy_eating_diet.htm

1.Timelogging Most of us think we have a fairly accurate sense of how we spend our time/our days. As it turns out, many of usdont.Timelogginggivesusalittlerealitycheckonhowwerespendingourtime.Theideaissimple. o Start a spreadsheet whereyou recordhowyoure spendingyourtime for a weekor even better, for amonth.Thereareanumberoftoolsthatcanhelpyoudothis(seelinkbelow).Simplywritingdown whatyouredoingforcesyoutothinkaboutwhetheryouredoingthemostproductivething.

Look back at how you spend your time and see if how you spend your time is consistent with your priority list. Are you spending minimal time on something youve pegged as a high priority? Make a concerted effort to spend more time on it. Timebox it. Are you spending lots of time on something thatgivesyoulittletonovalue?AddittoyourtoNotdolist(comingup),cutitoutorscaleitback. Here are a few options for timetracking applications to check out: http://lifehacker.com/5362829/fivebesttime+trackingapplications

2.ToNOTdolists Wereallfamiliarwithtodolists,buttoNOTdolistsarearguablyasimportant.Mostpeoplehavethingsthey spend a lot of time on that theyre not getting a lot back from. Watching the Real Housewives, surfing the internet, or playing videogames for hours on end. In order to make time to improve yourself and accomplish your goals, you need to cut out the things you spend time on that arent adding value to your life. Time logging can be a valuable tool for figuring out what should be on your tostop list. You can either eliminate a habit entirely or restrict it to certain times, making it more of an enjoyable treat that you engage in deliberately.

3.Buildingaprioritylist&settingdeadlines Youneedtoknowwhichgoalsaremostimportantsoyoucanfocusonthemfirst.Ifyouhavetimeleftoverfor the rest, even betterbut put first things first. Explicitly stating your priorities is crucial. Getting it down on paper forces you to turn fuzzy ideas into an actionable concrete form. And its always there for future reference.

First prioritize your big goals list. Its sometimes hard to rank goals relative to eachother but force yourself to do it. Look at your top priority goal. If you dont yet have subgoals for that goal, make them. If you already have subgoals: gold star! Now prioritize them. Then start making time to knock some of those subgoals out. Settingdeadlinescanbehelpful.

4.Timeboxing&thePomodorotechnique Setatimeranddontstopworkingonataskuntilitsfinishedorthetimergoesoff.Settingthetimerfor3090 minutes is a good rule of thumb. This is a good strategy to use once you have a list of actionable subgoals youretryingtoachieve.Pickahighprioritysubgoalandtimeboxaway.

The Pomodoro technique is a special form of timeboxing. You pick a task to work on, work on your chosen taskfor25minutes,thengiveyourselfa35minutebreak.Repeatthisprocess4timesandthenallowyourself alongerbreak.http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3freepomodoroproductivityapps/

AdditionalTools&Tips:

5.FreeYourBrain Does it occur to you that something needs doing? Write it down. If it needs to be done at a particular time, write it in your calendar. There are far more useful things your brain could be doing than trying to keep track oflistsofstufftodo.Useyourextendedbraininstead. You need a system you can trust. Put all the information in one place it can be on paper or on computer, but it should be kept very easy to find. The list of tasks will need reviewing and organizing,perhapsonceaweek. 1. SpeedReading Theres a lot to learn and keep up with. If you can read faster, you can learn faster, which means you can eitherlearnmoreorspendlesstimelearningwhatyouwanttolearnandmoretimegettingthingsdone. http://www.spreeder.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_reading

2.

ToLearnList A lot of big ideas have many components. And sometimes in order to make big ideas happen, you need to understand the components first. Writing down all the things you want to learn when you think of them is a greathabittogetinto.

3.

Hangoutwithpeoplewhohavequalitiesthatyouwanttohave. Neverunderestimatethepowerofsocialnorms.Studiesshowwebecomelikethepeoplewehangaround.So if you want to be focused and efficient, make an effort to spend time with people you think are focused and efficient.

4. 5. 6.

Workononethingatatime Multitaskingdoesntwork.Stayfocusedononethingatatime.

Batching Findtasksthataresimilar,suchasansweringabunchofemails,anddothematthesametime.

TimeYourWork Set a list of things to doeach day, anda number ofhoursyou intend towork. Then work until the list of tasks iscompletedoryoureachyourtimelimit.Whicheverissooner.Youwillgiveyourselfanincentivetocomplete tasksquickly.

ActionPoints

Learnmore: o LearnaboutGettingThingsDone,apopularmethodforkeepingtrackoftasksandpreventingthem fromclutteringyourmind:http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Papers/GTDcognition.pdf Domore: o o Try Eat That Frog. Eat That Frog is a simple technique for avoiding procrastination on your most importanttasks.Tryitout:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0W7GB5Fh2XM Experiment with Habits. Commit to a habit you want to adopt for 30 days. If you fail, start over. Especially when beginning, its advisable to choose one habit at a time to focus onso youll have to prioritize the habits you want. Once youve hit 30 days, you can decide whether the habit is worth keeping.