Distracted? Here's 3 Tips to Help You Stay Focused
For how many of us does this sound familiar? You sit down at your computer to do some work and immediately get distracted by your phone or find yourself googling something completely irrelevant to what you should be doing?
With so many of us working from home or, possibly, returning to the office (yey!) there are a lot of distractions to contend with. One of the biggest questions we get asked at Piece by Piece Therapies is how can I focus better on my work? Or how can I study without getting distracted all the time?
We’re to help! Below we talk about three simple tips to help you stay focused so you can get. it. done.
Know Your Limits - Many of us fall victim to setting the bar too high. We expect ourselves to be able to sit at our desks for hours and get work done. This is pretty difficult, if not impossible. For the average person, our attention spans are about 30 minutes. This doesn’t mean you can’t sit and work for longer than thirty minutes but it does mean your brain might begin to wander after 30 minutes or so. It’s important to understand this and not fight it. If you feel your thoughts wandering from whatever it is that you’re doing, it might be time to take a small break, grab a glass of water or stretch your legs. Do this in a contained way, perhaps but setting yourself a 5 minute timer and then get back into it. After an hour or so, take a longer break.
Be Realistic - In a similar vain to ‘Know your limits’ it’s important to be realistic in what you expect yourself to be able to achieve and in what time frame. Not many people can sit for hours and hours working, nor should you! Also, it’s pretty hard to power your way through a list of 20 items without breaks or distractions. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with a list, I love lists, but they can easily become overwhelming. Be mindful of what your expect yourself to do, is it realistic? Is it achievable? Is your timeline doable? By setting achievable goals you’ll find your motivation to keep working increases as well. Is there anything more satisfying than crossing something of your ‘To Do’ list??
Minimise Distractions - This may seem obvious, but use this as a gentle reminder to look over your work area with fresh eyes. Do you have multiple tabs open on your computer of online shopping or YouTube? Do you feel yourself reaching for your phone often? Is the TV close by? It might be a good idea to have a technological or physical declutter so that your are able to work at your best.
At Piece by Piece Therapies in Camberwell we’re here to help you feel the best version of yourself. This has been an incredibly difficult 12 months. Unintentionally a lot of us have developed unhelpful habits or find ourselves in a bit of a ‘brain fog.’ As we, in Australia, return to a life of relative normalcy you might find that it’s a little bit harder to stay on track with your work or find yourself being distracted more than usual. Our experienced team of Psychologists are here to help and can provide your with a number of thoughtful and evidence-based strategies to get you back on track. Please click the button below to get in touch.
Happy studying!