How Do You Remain Focused?

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How Do You Stay Focused?


I have a question for the community. How do you remain focused one task at a time? There are so many distractions in the world today. Especially when trying to produce content and focus on your online business. I run into this problem all the time. I login into my email and before I know it I have spent an hour looking through emails and end up clicking on links in some of them. I become taken off into the abyss of the internet never returning to what I first was focusing on for the day.

I start out the day with the intention to work on one thing at a time. But over the course of the day I end up with like 20 different tabs open on my computer and my attention gets drawn from one thing to another not really accomplishing anything of worth. This ends up getting frustrating and some days I just end up shutting my computer off.

I would like to hear about how some of you combat this information overload. What do you do to keep yourself focused on one task at a time?

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Recent Comments

27

Hi Cory.

Short, truthful answer: I don't.

Then again, I'm a Gemini, and we're notorious for skipping about like mental gadflies. I am trying to discipline myself against this instinct, but it's like turning a supertanker, it can be done only bit by bit. Still, I'm better than where I began and I don't see any reason why I shouldn't become better than where I'm at, someday.

To stay focused, I use the Test and Measure method. I keep a **VERY** strict account of the way I spend every minute in front of my computer, working. I've been able to improve my performance over the past 8 weeks by quite a lot, and I'm happy with the results. Now, to keep it going, and not to regress.

I think I've got just under 60 tabs open in three browsers, but many have been open for weeks. I've got a task planned for this week to reduce them before I go awol.

I wish you lots of fun and a home filled with happiness.

Regards,

Have a daily schedule and stick to it. Set goals on website content - that will help you focus on your writing.

I have a problem with staying focused too. Looks like some great advice here. Thanks for your post.

Hi Cory,

I have the same trouble a lot of the time. Especially, when general things get in the way. I followed what Kyle said about blocking out the content titles. Even though it took me a few days, they are now sat in my Google docs account ready for me to start looking at the content. I'm also going to look at what Jay suggested Brain.fm

Hi Graham, I have used Brain fm, and it does help you focus on the task at hand. When I'm writing, I have to close out other tabs on my computer and listen to the focus music on brain fm. I should use it more often, but I don't always think of it at the time.

I know what you mean Cory, partly because we are always getting distracted by too many things. Lol!
I suppose the more often you use it, you are more likely to remember it.

Let's hope we can all have less distraction. I will be trying the same technique myself.

Graham

Hi Cory,

I use Brain.fm to keep focused.
It's awesome.

I have used Brain.fm a few times. It works well for when I'm writing content.

Write your goals down and pin them up nearby, big enough to see easily, if your attention wanders.
Allow yourself a certain amount of time for emails, then close them and all associated windows. Promise yourself an equal amount of time on them later.

You have to want the outcome more than you want to give up
When your "shoulds" become your "musts", it begins to work

Barry

I often end up with 30-50+ browser windows open daily so can definitely relate to the original post. All those browser windows are created from actually getting down to work and seeking answers. There's usually good info here, there and everywhere and I suppose the best thing to do is set a limit on how many windows you open, how long you seek new information, before actually taking action. Kind of like deciding it's worth putting more time into researching what home to buy, than it is burning the same amount of time on reading reviews of a $10 product you're looking to purchase.

Well said, Barry!

It can be hard to keep focus if you’re easily distracted.
Make a habit of writing down your daily tasks.
Preferably the night before.
Assign a certain amount of time to spend in each task. Use the timer. Soon you will get used and no longer need the timer.
I hope that can helps
Good luck 😉

Good advice Jane! I will give that a try.

Cheers,

Cory

Welcome Cory

I'm toying with the idea of setting a daily 'word' count. Possibly between 1200-1500 but it can be spread across three sites and a blog here. I might try it for a week and see how it goes as far as finishing posts in a timely manner. If I'm eating, I'm reading or watching, is another one way I divide my time.

I definitely see setting quota-based goals like writing x,xxx words per day or x articles per week working once you've got the early stuff figured out and start seeing traction with a website. Then you just hammer away at writing words/content each day.

There's a huge part of any business that involves striking that balance of productivity and a healthy lifestyle. At some point you hit that law of diminishing returns if you're doing any task too long,

While I can hammer out 1500-2000 words in 1 hour some days, other days I hit the 2-3 hour mark and I just keep trying to finish up because I think it might only take "a few more minutes". Those are days I'll be 6 hours writing an post, skipping lunch and ultimately feeling like I wasted the day and am doing something very unhealthy for myself.

That's where I'm going to try to hit the Pomodoro Technique harder myself. I'm big into solving problems like this. I think of them like hacking your own mind. Forcing complete attention for short periods of time and also forcing short breaks in-between seems like a really solid idea. I'll post some updates on my WA blog if it works well lol.

Looks to be a good possibility. I like 'chunking' or my own form of, breaking larger jobs into smaller ones or just staying on task rather than getting distracted. I shall follow your results/progress. Nice one.

Fighting this myself. With my other business assembling products for sale I was able to figure out how to set goals of quotas and stay laser-focused. Took me a while to get there, but I eventually figured out what worked well to make productive use of time. Affiliate Marketing is a different animal altogether.

Task-based goals are good. Pomodoro Technique seems to be a good idea. This is where you pick a specific task to do for 20-25 minutes and then take a short break can help you break the day up in small chunks of very focused behavior. All those chunks add up. Deciding that you HAVE to pick some small task to focus completely for a short duration may be the ticket out of finding yourself down a rabbit hole.

I'm expecting this to get easier over time too. When you're familiar with tools/techniques and have an idea what actions you need to take for success, you're not having to relearn all that and suffer from information overload.

I'm going to have to try implementing the Pomodoro Technique. It sounds like a good way to go about focusing for the day. Thanks for the advice!

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