Monday, February 18, 2013

Cannot concentrate or focus? 10 easy tips to improve your concentration at work

Imagine a scenario where you are sitting in your office or working out a project with colleagues. It is finely tricky trying to stay focused in an environment like this. But there are still a number of distractions which normally interrupt your working furrow like a cell phone rings up, a loud conversation between office staffs etc. So what are some of the things we can do to minimize such interruptions and distractions? Well, here I give you the top 10 ways to concentrate in your work at office or at any place.



1. To-do list and plan your day

All you have to do is to make a To-do list that describes your day’s total plan ahead and make things easy. There’s nothing like a To-do list placed next to you to keep you focused and determined. When you have a list of the things you need to achieve in a day, having that neat to you all the time reminding you of what ought to be done is a fine way of keeping things on track. It will not only remind about the work you need to do but also about the pending work and the work which has been already done.

2. Schedule your time

Scheduling deals about dividing the work time appropriately according to the need of your task. In a demanding work place, people are moving and talking all the time. If you play a role in a team or as a project member where others wants to interact with you, try distributing a time slot they can break off you. By providing time slots for every task you do, you just make it easy for you to handle your work and get some time for others too in a tight schedule. At all other times, you can really get some work done.

3. Do not check personal email in the morning

Checking personal emails early morning can be very distracting. This come to reality when your friends send you links to interesting sites, jokes or videos on YouTube and other sites. If you’re not careful enough, you can get stuck for checking and accessing your mails for hours and get wasted your precious time behind it. Instead of checking your personal email in early morning, try starting work straight away. You should check your personal email only after you have completed few tasks.

4. Filter your E-mail

Setting up filters in your email can be an immense way of classifying out what’s important and vital from personal stuff which can wait and can be done later on other basis. If you spend a lot of your time doing conversation and planning in front of your computer, possibilities are you deal with emails on a regular origin. Instead of dealing with a single Inbox with hundreds of unread email, you only need to covenant with smaller folders categorized by project, urgent and framework.

5. Listen music

Music is the best way of getting into your work. Particularly, listening music can bring down the out office noises like printers and background chattering of co-workers. You must follow the kind of music that amuses and calms your brain instead of rock or hard music. Many people favor to have absolute silence when working. If you’re doing some serious project work it is some time not appropriate that you can totally focus on work, so better suite your self accordingly.

6. Use water bottle

Drinking water frequently for keeping yourself hydrated is pretty important for all sorts of health reasons. Instead of going to the water cooler every hour, try filling up a water bottle at the dawn of the day while you begin your work and keep it near your working place. This helps a lot of things – firstly, it helps you to save time by roaming around for water every time you feel thirsty and secondly, it prevents being hanged up into lengthy discussions around the water cooler with co-workers.

7. Use shortcuts on your PC

If you come across you do the similar things on your desktop computer more than once throughout the day, you might find it helpful to look for ways in which you can do them without too much manual go over. Take for an example, if there’s a project folder you access all the time, and keep on accessing the same data again and again instead try adding a shortcut to your Explorer so you can get access to it with a single click, instead doing it over again.

8. Close programs you’re not using

Being a software engineer, I use a whole lot of programs kept opened important to my work. But, in most cases, I only need some apps open at the same time. Instead of Alt-Tabbing frequently and boxing with the computer to locate the program you need, make sure and try having the apps you need open. Close everything else. For example, if you have already located a file or and application and no longer need a particular Explorer at that instance open, then close it.

9. Change your mindset

For many people, it is difficult to stay motivated on doing things. Many people not by nature interested in doing. To be motivated through out the day just read some motivational quotes before you start your work and when you get bored. However, be mindful of the fact that your insight of work is something you can desire and control. A distracted mind is an unconcealed mind. So make things fun around you!

10. Set your online services offline at work

Many of the people get distracted in their work just because their social servicing sites are left online on their Pc’s by them. This tends to be the main root cause problem for the distraction. Because people get attracted to chat with their friends and families being online and beating around the bush of conversations among with them. So it is always better to set your online services offline at work.