How to Improve Focus: Why Do You Lose It?
During a breakout room in one of my virtual seminars, a participant laughingly said, “I don’t know how I lose focus. That’s why I’m here!”
To kick off this seminar entitled How to Maintain Focus and Manage Interruptions Throughout the Day, we identified examples of self-interruptions. We can lose focus in a variety of ways, including when we decide to pop into our email inbox, take a peek at social media, go down a rabbit hole from a random thought, or succumb to FOMO (fear of missing out).
From here, we dug into the question of, “Why do we lose focus?” That’s when the gentleman gave his answer above.
As we drilled down, he and the other participants began to realize that I can give examples of why they might lose focus, but in the end, each individual must identify it for themselves. When you’re able to do this, you will launch yourself into a new stratosphere of successful time management.
If you’re wondering how you can go about doing this, here are the questions we asked and answered:
- What self-interruptions do you experience?
Examine one self-interruption at a time:
- Where are you when this happens? (List up to four of the most common locations.)
- What are you doing when this happens? (List up to four of the most common activities.)
- When does this happen? (List the day of the week, month of the year and/or time of day this tends to happen.)
Once we’ve captured these thoughts, we dive in to look for patterns:
- Is there a common task you’re working on when this happens?
- Is there a common location when this happens?
- Is there a common situation you’re in when this happens?
- Is there a common state of mind you’re in when this happens?
- Is there a common day or time when this happens?
By answering these questions as you reflect on scenarios, you can answer the question of why you lose focus during the day. Armed with the answer, you’ll be able to mitigate this loss of focus and get back on track more quickly because you’ll realize what’s about to happen. You might also be able to prevent it.
It’s your turn. Why do you lose focus?
For more tips on how to reduce self-interruptions and improve focus, check out The Inefficiency Assassin: Time Management Tactics for Working Smarter, Not Longer.
