Stop Concentrating on Concentrating
I’ve been having some problems concentrating lately.
Earlier in the week I posted about some time wasters. I have been identifying with them far too much, however. There are some tasks that I’ve been trying to accomplish, but instead I have become absorbed in all sorts of minutia. Yesterday I realized what the problem is: I’ve been concentrating on concentrating!
Concentration is the ability to focus attention and effort to a single goal, while ignoring irrelevant distractions.
Sounds easy enough, but those distractions are all around us. And some of them are pretty darned interesting. But, these distractions sap our energy level and reduce productivity, which in turn, increase our level of stress.
What do we do about these distractions and our inability to concentrate?
Here are some things that I found worked for me:
- Eliminate fatigue. If our bodies and minds are exhausted, it doesn’t matter how long we try to focus and accomplish our tasks. When we are tired we have a decreased ability to concentrate. I found when I took some time away from everything, got some exercise and rest, I returned to my tasks with a renewed sense of energy, I got more done in less time.
- Shift focus from immediate gratification to a two-tiered concept of short and long term benefits. I realized that I had been toiling away on a project that was not giving me any immediate gratification. This, unfortunately, made it far too easy for me to be sidetracked by tasks (or shall we say, distractions) that provided me more of an immediate charge. I broke my project down into a couple of smaller projects, which did allow for some short-term gratification. This provided enough positive feedback to keep me concentrating on the big picture payoff, even though it was much further down the road.
- Say no. I confess; I like to say yes. It makes me feel good to help someone out. I think most of have a little bit of that “hero” gene, and when we’re asked to help out, it kicks in big time. But sometimes, the answer just has to be NO. It’s kinder to everyone involved, and it allows everyone to return their concentration to their respective tasks at hand.
- Don’t watch the clock. While I normally work quite well when on deadline, I found that watching the clock became what I was concentrating on, rather than getting the project completed. I took off my watch, took the clock down from the wall, and even put a piece of tape over the clock on the computer. Then I sat down to work. It was surprising how much got done when I didn’t have the time to concentrate on.
- Let it go. When I found myself repeatedly hitting my head against the wall, I rewarded myself for what I had accomplished, rather than beat myself up for what I hadn’t. Things then seemed to flow much easier. I celebrated my accomplishments, took some personal time to recharge, and came back to the task with a new sense of commitment and concentration.
The ability to concentrate results in enhanced performances, peace of mind, a sense of a job well done, and more available time to do things that you enjoy in life. It is, however, a learned skill, and takes continuous practice.
How do you practice concentrating? Are there techniques that you find helpful when you must remain on-task?
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POSTED IN: Leadership Skills, Uncategorized
2 opinions for Stop Concentrating on Concentrating
Brenda
Aug 27, 2008 at 9:11 am
Great tips! I have found that if I allocate a certain amount of time that I want to dedicate to a chore or a project that I have been prone to put off, and I set a timer to go off when that time has come to an end, that it motivates me to get started faster and to stay on task. Usually I put off tasks because it feels like they will consume a lot of my time. So I decide on an amount of time that I think I can handle, like 10 minues of doing dishes or 30 minutes of doing invoicing. I use the countdown mode on my cell phone for my timer. Instead of an alarm going off, I have a chant tune that cheers for me, recognizing my bite-sized accomplishments (sometimes I jump up and do my own little cheer dance!). I don’t have to finish the chore or project in that amount of time, but it makes me feel good that I put a dent in it. When the timer goes off I can either reward myself with a break, move onto another timed project or, if I feel motivated to continue with the project at hand, I can decide to keep working on it for another block of time or until it is done. I forgot about this trick until I started writing about another article to you. With summer break over and the kids back in school, and a half-finished office remodeling project, I’ve been having trouble shifting priorities.
This other article (at
http://www.apa.org/releases/multitasking.html) says something, in a lofty way, that might seem obvious … “interrelated cognitive processes establish priorities among tasks and allocate the mind’s resources to them. For each aspect of human performance — perceiving, thinking and acting — people have specific mental resources whose effective use requires supervision through ‘executive mental control’.
…. executive control involves two distinct, complementary stages: goal shifting (”I want to do this now instead of that”) and rule activation (”I’m turning off the rules for that and turning on the rules for this”). Both stages help people unconsciously switch between tasks.” Since, according to that article, the rule shifting takes about half a second, the problem I have is with the goal shifting, which, with me, can take hours, days, even weeks! I think my problem is that old battle between ‘wanting’ to do something and ’should-ing’ or ‘needing’ to do a higher priority task. I need to be able to lay down what I want to do and actually do what I deem to be my priority. Maybe, in order to switch gears, I need to find a way to look at my priorities as something that I ‘want’ to do. I think I’ll try writing down a few reasons why I ‘want’ to do my ‘need-to-do’ tasks, and maybe that will help me to shift my focus to the task at hand. In addition to that, maybe my ‘executive mental control’ supervisor just needs to plan and take a real rejuvenating vacation! :)
Miki Saxon
Aug 27, 2008 at 11:26 am
Hi Brenda, Thanks for stopping by; I’m glad the information was of use. This post pre-dates my writing for Leadership Turn, but the tips are right on, especially learning to say no.
However, I’m not a fan of multitasking, it’s been proved that it doesn’t work!
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