Well in today’s day and age, it’s a far cry to call it easy. Focusing has never been harder because we’ve never had more distractions. Whether it’s your chatty deskmate, the flash of a notification on your phone, or a never-ending stream of incoming emails, we know you have a lot to juggle.
Luckily, there are some steadfast tips to improve your focus and get more done.
Here at SnackNation we see ourselves as your partner and crime and it doesn’t stop with healthy snacks, we’re here to be your workplace guru keeping you fed with the freshest and tastiest tips out there. So here we go, our top 5 focus hacks:
1. Be Intentional
Whether you set quarterly goals, monthly challenges, or daily mantras, setting to work with intention is essential to staying focused.
Try this: Send yourself an email with your daily mantra in the subject line and leave it unread until the day is over. Every time you look at your inbox, you’ll get a reminder to return to your daily intention.
2. Set Yourself Daily Reminders
It’s only natural for your mind to wander! Some studies show that our minds wander up to half of the time we’re awake!
Creativity and thinking out of the box require meandering thoughts and we shouldn’t think of daydreaming as a bad habit. However, when we need to focus it’s time to switch on our tunnel vision and get to work. Here at SnackNation we’re big on calendar organization and setting reminders to do things like take breaks, go for a walk, or even meditate!
3. Check in with Yourself Regularly
A productive day starts with inner strength – a sense of confidence and well-being. Think about it, have you ever done your best work when you felt sick or after a sad event?
Cultivating self-awareness is a practice that requires you to check in regularly. Getting to know yourself better and understanding your emotions leads to having more control over your mental state. Doesn’t that sound a lot like the definition of focus?
Here are 4 simple practices you can do at any time to get a better picture of your mental state:
4. Put Others First
One of our core values is to Serve and Inspire but the interesting thing about serving is that it also benefits you. We all know how giving a gift is almost, if not more, fun than getting a gift. Well, the same applies when it comes to working.
If you find yourself resisting a task or even putting it off, take a moment to get outside of yourself and think about how you can serve those around you.
Many benefits come from helping others, but when it comes to honing your concentration on a task at hand, it’s often just a small shift in your mindset that can be a game-changer. Plus, you never know if it may come back to you.
5. Fuel Your Focus
We’ve already talked about the mind-body connection here but focus takes literal fuel. Being mindful of how food and drinks affect your productivity is a huge hack.
Food has a direct impact on your performance and the best part, it’s 100% in your control.
In an article in the Harvard Business Review, they compare eating well to getting gas that lets your skip traffic. Imagine that!
“With [car] fuel, you can reliably expect the same performance from your car no matter what brand of unleaded you put in your tank. Food is different. Imagine a world where filling up at Mobil meant avoiding all traffic and using BP meant driving no faster than 20 miles an hour. Would you then be so cavalier about where you purchased your gas?”
To be your most focused, you need high-quality food. Period.
