How to stay focussed and gain time
Posted on March 21, 2009 by tomvanlerberghe
We all know the feeling, an upcoming deadline, your boss keeps sending mails, you feel like doing anything else (cleaning, surfing IMDB for movietrivia,…), except what really had to be done.
1. Keep your deadlines realistic and manageable. If you think a project will take 10 hours to finish, make it 12 hours. Adding that extra 20% to your deadline is ‘the shit-factor’. Cause Murphy’s always looking and it will always happen when you’re stressed for time.
2. It’s your time. I’m not a morningperson, I peak when most people are thinking of going home. I have to accept that I have to be at work between 9 and 10am, but other than that, I can arrange my time like I want to. I don’t plan difficult tasks in the morning, don’t plan important meetings or basically do anything I have to focus too much on. It just won’t happen, nothing would get done, but I would be able to tell you all the trivia about the new Thor release.
3. Find your happy place. If you know you’re someone who gets distracted easily, don’t plan doing your tasks when you know there’s going to be a lot of noise. Find that place where you can focus 100% without getting distracted. I know employees who made a deal where they’re not available for a few hours each day. Nobody can disturb them, though they’re at work, in a way they are not. It gives them time to focus without someone barging in, asking for white paper for the xerox.
4. Plan ahead. It seems like a waste of time, but writing down what you have to do, mapping out the steps you have to do will make it much more manageable and seemingly less frightning to start working on it. Just make sure you have lots of bullets you can scratch of the list, every scratch is a small victory.
5. Multitasking is a myth. With all respect to people who get bored easily, but how can you manage 10 tasks at the same time, when you can’t focus on 1 task properly?
You may want to read:
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Erik Bauffman
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Tom