If you spend just ten minutes cleaning your space at the end of every day, you’ll be able to maintain your new organized lifestyle. If you don’t need your phone to do your work, put it away for a few hours. Don’t let it clutter your space and distract you.
Prioritize your tasks. Put the most important or hardest tasks first. It’s better to save the easier or more manageable tasks for the end of the day when you’re more tired and less compelled to complete the hardest tasks. If you put off the hard tasks until the last minute, you’ll be dreading getting them done all day. For example, a to-do list could contain: “Call mom. Order cake for kid’s birthday. Call the doctor back. Post office @ 2 pm. ”
You can break up more time-consuming tasks with shorter, easier tasks. That way you won’t be overwhelmed by too many tough tasks in a row. You can think of the shorter tasks as a mini-reward. For example, you could write: “Make coffee: 5 minutes. Answer emails: 15 minutes. Staff meeting: 1 hour. Type meeting notes 30 minutes. Edit reports 2 hours. ”
You can even set a timer to go off after every half hour or hour of work, signaling that you should take a break. If you’re really “in the zone” you can skip one of the breaks, but don’t make it a habit. If you have a smartphone, you can also use an app like Pomodoro to schedule your workday with built-in breaks.
For example, you can set a goal to read for thirty minutes over the course of three hours. Taking a break to rest your eyes from the screen and finish the chapter of a book will make you more motivated to finish your tasks.
After a couple weeks, once you’ve become adept at focusing for 30 minutes, see if you can extend that focus time by 5, or even by 10 minutes. Though you should take a break at least every hour, learning to focus for longer will make it easier for you to complete the tasks ahead and to focus for even a longer period of time.
For example, if you know you need to call a particularly difficult client this week, don’t put it off until Friday afternoon. Make the call on Monday or Tuesday morning, and it won’t be hanging over your head for the rest of the week. Regularly giving in to procrastination will ruin your focus and severely decrease your productivity.
This is where the to-do list comes in handy: it will make you more motivated to finish your tasks one at a time.
To avoid online distractions, aim to have as few Internet tabs open as possible. The more tabs you have open, the more you’ll be multi-tasking and the more likely you’ll be to get distracted. Give yourself five minutes every 2 hours to check your email, Facebook, or any other social networking sites that you can’t live without. Then, stay off the sites until the next 2 hours have passed.
Also don’t get distracted by your surroundings. If you’re in a loud environment, listen to calming music or invest in some noise-cancelling headphones. Though you may be tempted to look around and see what everyone else is up to, allow yourself to only look up every 10 minutes or so to stay focused. Work in a productive environment like a coffee shop or library. Seeing others being productive can help you focus on your own productivity. Listen to classical music or nature sounds through headphones to help improve your focus. Avoid music with lyrics since they may be distracting.
If you have time, you can turn the 3 to 5 breaths into a longer breathing session. Over your lunch break, for example, sit or lay down and focus on deep breathing for 15 minutes. Accept the task that you need to get done. Resisting a task will make it more difficult.
If you don’t like gum, try eating a healthy snack, which can have the same effect as gum. Eat a handful of nuts or a few carrot sticks.
It’s better to stay hydrated and drink just one cup of tea a day than to fill your system with so much caffeine that you feel too jumpy to get anything done.
Try following the 20-20-20 rule: each time 20 minutes passes, devote 20 seconds to looking at something that’s about 20 feet (6. 1 m) away.
For example, if you’re studying, remind yourself why it’s important. It may not be important for you to ace 1 quiz or test, but it is important for you to succeed in the course that will factor in your quiz or test grade, and it is important for you to get good grades so you can graduate. Or, if you’re doing work, remind yourself why your work is important. If the work is a means to an end, remind yourself of all the things you can buy because of the work, or about all of the fun things you can do once your work day is over.
So, what is your goal for completing your task? Is it to simply get done with the work or school day, to save up enough money to buy a boat, or to advance your career? For example, your goal could also be just to clean your whole house so you can throw a fun party, or to run for 40 minutes without giving up so you can be in better shape.
Your mantra could be something like, “No more Facebook and no more texting until I get my work done. When I get my work done, I’ll be ready to ace the chemistry test, and when I ace the chemistry test, I’ll get an A in the class!”
