How can we Focus?

Can you relate with me when I say that there are a lot of things to do?  That it’s hard to identify which one to do first if it’s Urgent, Important, ASAP or Critical?


Does your calendar look like this?

Yes, this is my calendar and I was not happy to see this!  There are moments like this when I needed to take each meeting and to squeeze them all in — is this healthy?  My answer is “NO”.

Why? It’s hard to focus — it’s like, there is no time to breath and think of what to do first.  Because instead of planning ahead, there is another meeting coming up that you need to attend.  Then action items piles up and not to mention your emails and other adhoc tasks.  This is just so NOT GOOD!

So what do we do?
Okie — let me tell you this — WORK WILL NEVER GO AWAY — let me repeat that — WORK WILL NEVER GO AWAY! We need to accept that fact!

Number two, we are not robots who doesn’t get tired of working LOOONG hours.  But what if everything just needs to be done ASAP, URGENT, IMPORTANT?? We prioritize and when we do, we focus.

I would like to share what’s helping me Focus:

1. My To-Do List – This is really helpful for me.  I am the type of person who is really having a hard time to focus — when I am in the middle of something and then suddenly a file is not saving too fast — my mind will wander and open another email to respond to.  Then i will not notice that I was not able to finish what I was actually doing.  My To-Do List solved the problem — when I was in a middle of something and my mind wandered — I write it down — that way I can:
        (1) Focus on my original task
        (2) Remember that I have another action item on my plate.

2. I take DND (Do Not Disturb) Status in Skype seriously – In one of the discussion that I attended about Truly Human, there were discussions about the Mind Dimension and its related to Focus.  To be able to focus, we should remove distractions and I bet you will agree 100% that pings are a super distraction.   It’s either you will:
     (1) respond – then you are distracted or
     (2) will ignore but will eventually will not be able to remember the ping — if you noticed, when you ignore a ping — it will (for a time) stop blinking. 

This can be a two way sword — people might think that you don’t want to be reached out to — this is Wrong.  If it’s really important / urgent, then people will either approach you, or even text or call you.  Accenture People finds ways — we are good at it.

3. I schedule focus time – In my opinion, attending back to back meetings does not equate to productivity.  Yes you may be productive because there’s a lot going on but were there problems solved? or items closed? more often that not, another meeting needs to be set to eventually close an item.  Anyways, I schedule “FT” Focus Time.  This is blocking my calendar to do an important task so that it will not be blocked by another meeting.   Or even blocking a short breather time.  One of my best practice is scheduling meetings for 45 minutes instead of an hour.  One, it helps me maximize the meeting time that I have and make sure it’s productive, two, I have 15 minutes more to focus and start another meeting (if unavoidable).

4. 60 – 15 approach – This is when I work for 60 minutes and then breath for the next 15 minutes.  How do I do it, i use my phone alarm and it really worked on my focus.

5. I talk to my team and laugh – Really most of the time, when I need to focus — i need some time to talk and laugh (this is me and we can all have different approaches and I am such a talkative person).

These are the things that helped me Focus.  This is not something that may be applicable to all but maybe can also help you.  Different folks, different strokes so what works with me may not work for others but I am welcome to hear best practices so that I can also apply them.  That in itself is Collaboration!

How about you? How do you focus?


Xoxo