3 Practices to Affix Your Attention to the Task-at-Hand

Making an appointment with a new medical professional and noting what you need to do prior to the initial appointment. Reviewing the accuracy of the Explanation of Benefits (EOB) from your health insurance company. Researching treatment options for a new diagnosis.

Regardless of what you’re working on, chances are pretty good you’ll be interrupted at least once before you can finish. It doesn’t matter whether the distraction is a text message, your thoughts about a different topic, or a person (or pet) entering your space. The issue is that there’s been a pause in your activity and it will take time to get back into the groove.

Here are three techniques to reduce diversions from impacting your ability to complete tasks.

Blinders. It’s hard to maintain attention when there are visual or auditory distractions. That’s when you must use “blinders”. Here are some ideas:

• Reduce physical clutter.
• Turn off email, phone, and text notifications.
• Use earbuds and listen to white noise.
• Configure your computer to limit the amount of time on fun (or shopping) sites.

What works for one person may not work for another. You may need to experiment before you find effective “blinders” for you.

Brain download. Our minds often race a-mile-a-minute with thoughts on-topic and off-topic. So how do you keep the non-applicable information from derailing your efforts? With a reliable method of transferring the unneeded (at least at this specific moment) thoughts out of your brain!

You have to determine where to put the information so that you can find it when you need it. Choose a method and try it consistently for a few weeks. This is just an experiment! Then assess what worked and what didn’t work. You may just need to tweak your method, or you may need to try something completely different.

Beneficial breathing. I realize you know how to breathe! However, if you spend 20-30 seconds taking deep, complete breaths, your mind will calm down and provide greater focus as you start your task. Need a little structure? Try this routine several times:

• In, one, two
• Hold, one, two
• Out, one, two
• Hold, one, two

Now you have three strategies to minimize interference and increase focus while you’re working on a task. Choose the one that seems the most interesting to you and give it a try. Let me know below so I can celebrate with you.