Find focus through deep work

How often do you get into a flow state in work? Once a day? Twice a day? Or is it only once or twice a week? Being able to enter and maintain focus is crucial for completing projects and managing your wellbeing.

Set clear goals

Write down tasks, not milestones

When adding items to your to-do list, ensure you write the next specific task or action instead of a broad milestone, which often require multiple steps.

For instance, if your car breaks down, don’t write “sort car” on your to-do list. Instead, break it down into a series of single tasks:

• Contact local car garages
• Book car into a garage
• Take the car to the garage
• Collect the car from the garage

Keep separate to-do lists

It is normal to keep a separate to-do list for something like a shopping list, so why don’t we keep separate to-do lists for different aspects of our work life?

I recommend having a to-do list for each different location you work (e.g., at home, office, or on-site) and for the different projects you are involved in. In my work, I maintain separate to-do lists for:

• Tasks at desk
• Courses to create
• Sales conversations

Recommended reading:  Getting Things Done by David Allen

Limit Distractions

Consider your push notifications

Distractions are the enemy of productivity. In one study, it took people over 23 minutes to refocus after being distracted. Are your notifications taking you out of focus unnecessarily? If they are, you need to consider turning them off.

What if only important or urgent notifications were able to interrupt your focus? I normally only have notifications on for:

• Phone calls
• Messages
• Uber Eats (I’m not missing my food!)

Remove or replace background noise

Background noise can either disrupt our focus or help maintain it. If you prefer peace and quiet, it can be beneficial to recreate that environment in your work life.

Deep work is often best completed with minimal external stimuli. However, I have found that listening to music I am familiar with, or music with limited vocals helps minimise other external distractions, allowing me to focus better.

Recommended reading:  Deep Work by Cal Newport

Find the time

Prioritise when you are effective

Do you know when you are most effective? If you do, prioritise that time for deep work or urgent activities. Consider shifting less demanding tasks such as some meetings and emails to your less productive times to optimise your energy.

If you’re uncertain about your peak productivity times, experiment by taking on deep work at different times of the day and determine at what times your focus was best.

Use your calendar:

• Your calendar is another to-do list, and it can allow you to organise lots of tasks visually.
• At the end of the current workday, I put the most important task for the following workday in my calendar, aiming to schedule it during my most effective hours if possible.
• At the end of each work week, I look at all my task-lists and transfer outstanding tasks from my lists to my calendar. When something goes in your calendar it does not need to stay on the to-do list it came from.

Recommended reading:  Eat That Frog! by Brian Tracy

Things to Take Away

Review your to-do lists:

• Check if you need to add or remove any lists to better manage multiple tasks.

Break down milestones into tasks:

• Ensure your to-do lists consist of actionable tasks, not large milestones.

Manage your notifications:

• Turn off notifications that don’t serve you. Do your shopping apps need to send you home screen notifications?

Experiment with background noise:

• Practice working without background noise or find the right kind of noise that helps you focus.

Identify your peak focus times:

• Discover when you are most productive and prioritise deep work during these times.

Use your calendar effectively:

• Treat your calendar as a visual to-do list to prioritise important and urgent tasks.

Experiment with these techniques, and you may improve your ability to concentrate on tasks, reach a flow state, and ultimately get stuff done.

If you want a deep dive, join my Managing Your Productivity course for a day of learning – for more information and dates click here.

Don’t have a day? Join my one-hour Summer School session – Get It Off Your To-Do Lists for £35, taking place on Monday 19 August – click here for more information.