6 Ways to Stay Focused in 2010
With the new year rapidly rolling in, most of us are focused on festivities, hanging with friends and family and thinking of our plans for 2010. If you are anything like me, you have big plans. But staying focused enough to really be productive is the biggest problem that many work at home moms have. After all, we tend to have more than our fair share of distractions!
So, just what can you do to stay focused this coming year? Here are 7 tips to help you.
- Bite sized projects. Even if you have a very big project, focus on parts of it that you can do in 15-20 min. If you’re lucky enough to have more than 20 minutes in a row to work, just move on to the next part of the project!
- Turn off distractions. Ok, you can’t turn off your kids (wouldn’t that be nice once in a while?), but you CAN turn off the television, shut down your email and Twitter and block StumbleUpon. All these little distractions take up time and ruin our focus, so just turn them off for a bit and see how much you get done.
- Keep a worry list. As a mom, you probably worry about a lot of stuff. Fortunately, we can procrastinate! Get yourself a mini notepad and keep it near you. When you’re working on something and suddenly realize you need to get a gift for your nephew, rather than jump on Amazon right that minute, write it down in your notebook. Notice that your son’s jeans have a tear? Write it down. The kitchen sink is leaking? Write it down. Then set aside a chunk of time each day to deal with these things . . . but not during work hours when you’ll lose your focus.
- Make a focused list. My to do lists really get out of hand. I have lists for various areas, each with 10-20 items on them. That’s too many! It’s distracting! Stick to a few key items at a time and you will be able to concentrate on completing those tasks, rather than jumping between several.
- Set a timer. I think a toddler’s attention span is contagious . . . I know my attention span dropped after having kids! So, if you find it difficult to concentrate on one thing for very long, try setting a timer. Start at 5 minutes and work ONLY on one thing for that amount of time. After a few days, increase it to 10 minutes, then 15, 20, 30, etc.
- Get enough sleep. That came out of left field, huh? Not really. Most moms don’t get enough sleep and work at home moms are the worst culprits because we tend to stay up til all hours to get stuff done. However, you will likely find that if you’re tired, your attention wanders, so it stands to reason that if you sleep more, you’ll focus more. And if sleeping more just isn’t an option, then I highly recommend coffee and anything else with caffeine.
What are your tips for focus?
This is good info to read as a reminder to myself. thanks.