improve concentration at work

This article deals with the concentration/attention killers that seriously affects  productivity at work. In this article you will learn about attention distractions, how to overcome them and lead an improved life.

The other day I was speaking to a friend over the phone and came to know that he could not concentrate on work and be more productive as his colleagues. He wanted to be promoted to a higher designation, but he could not change his activities which is pushing him behind in the competitive corporate world.

Thus that conversation between us made me write this article.

Learning about these attention/concentration killers are very important to any person working in the corporate field today, especially for those people working in IT sector, Computers, Software jobs.

Ask yourself these questions

Am I honest?

Am I doing the work on time?

Am I friendly and collaborative with the Team?

Am I good with my superiors/boss?

Am I productive?

Am I managing time? Utilizing resources effectively?

Everyone wants a higher pay, better designation. This is a good thing competing with others is important when it comes to growth and development in any job. When you are asking for a higher pay/designation just ask those queries to yourself; people often complain about company/employer/boss without evaluating themselves.

Many expect to be promoted to a higher position/designation without actually doing some useful work in time and more productivity. How can an employer promote a person to a higher position when the person (say software employee) keeps staring at a monitor without completing the given work in time?

The cause for lacking productivity is neither the employee nor the employer. These are caused by attention killers.

First and foremost attention killer is the Social Media:

Whether you agree or not this is the first distraction that hinders concentration and productivity. Social media sites allows you to connect with your friends and family quickly from anywhere in the world, but are you utilizing it in a right way? Psychologists say that “It is easy to connect with friends, and disconnect with work many times in an hour.” Every update, either it is a status update/photo update/media/ any sort of update. Makes your thoughts backtrack when you resume your work.

The only way to fix this attention killer is to avoid logging into social media sites at workplace. If you could not resist your urge take your laptop away from internet free zone. Additionally you can block your social media sites thorough your operating system in built functions and ask somebody to set passwords for the same. This way you will not know the password and can’t access the social media sites.Everything is possible if you could control your thoughts and mind.

Second attention killer in our list is Email:

Email has improved our life a lot, but it does have its disadvantages. With increased technology now emails can be sent by software programs and automated scripts. These kinds of emails usually end up in your spam, yet most trigger your in box.Every time an email shoots into inbox, it urges you to answer immediately. Although you will be receiving work related emails most of the time they still count as distractions for your current project. You can’t  progress in your project if you constantly stop and reply each and every email/message.

Schedule a time for attending to emails and messages, you can shut down your email program in the rest of the time. This will help you keep email from distracting your concentration. You can also setup automated reply in many email services these days, schedule it during you non email checking hours and be peace of mind.

Third attention killer is Cell phone/Mobile:

Nothing works in this digital age, without use of cell phones; cell phones/mobiles keep you in touch with people at any time and anywhere in the world. Cell phones/Mobiles have improved our life very well. It is always said that too much of good thing is bad for you. This applies to mobile/cell phone usage. Cell phones/Mobiles should improve productivity; rather they are making people less productive these days. This is not because of cell phones/mobiles, this is because of the way people use it in their life.Every product/technology can be used in a good way and bad way. It is you who choose the way in which you want to use the cell phone/mobile. Talking a call not only costs you time talking, but also cut off your momentum of task at hand.

Cell Phone/Mobile Fix:

There is a saying that “One has to cut the diamond with another diamond only.”This applies here when technology and communication is hindering your productivity and killing your concentration; make use of the same technology to tackle it. Put caller ID to use, if you think that incoming call is not important divert it to voice mail. If you are working on an important project/task intensely consider switching off your mobile/put it in silent mode. Schedule a specific time to check the voice mail and answer them all at once after listening to all the voice mail messages. Avoid using Social media live update apps.

Fourth Culprit Multitasking:

If you have mastered multitasking and feeling that you are doing things in less time; think again research shows that multitasking actually won’t increase any productivity. It only makes you feel that you are doing several tasks at a time. Switching between different tasks actually makes you distracted and makes you unable to concentrate. We have already posted about this in our previous article.

Whenever possible focus on doing a single task. Use your multitasking skills only for tasks that are not urgent and demanding.

Fifth attention distraction Boredom:

Often tasks you do daily seem more interesting than others, like answering your phone, internet, cleaning your workspace. The boring ones may grab your attention span in minutes, making you vulnerable to distractions.

Make your task exiting; make deal to yourself that if you work on a task for a few minutes with attention award yourself a 10 minutes break. Reward yourself with coffee, break, walking out of workplace, favorite snack. Following some simple techniques can help you hack your brain from boredom.

Sixth culprit Stress:

Stress is the very important concentration killer; stress can be caused by several things in our life. Stress is one of the main causes of attention distraction. When there is too much work on your desk, you will feel stressed causing headaches, chills, racing heart beats. We have earlier discussed some important things you should know about stress.

The best way to beat stress is to meditate daily for a few minutes. Research shows that people taking mediation courses for a few weeks reduced stress levels and improved attention on work. We have posted earlier several ways to tackle stress.

Fatigue:

Fatigue is also makes you unable to concentrate, even though there are no distractions at all. Research shows that too little sleep can sap your short term memory and attention span.

Fixing your sleep patterns is the only solution to fix fatigue, make sure you are getting daily recommended sleep hours. Average adults need 7-9 hours of sleep daily in order to recover from the daily fatigue.

Most people skip meals/breakfast, lunch at times as they could not schedule time properly. The lack of fuel to brain makes it unable to concentrate and work efficiently. People skipping their breakfast suffer a lot when compared to meal skippers.This is because when you wake up in the morning the brain needs fuel to startup and work for you. If you are skipping the most important part of the days food. You are forcing your brain against its limits. Breakfast skippers suffer from shorter memory loss and attention for a small time span.

Fixing Hunger:

Never skip breakfast. Schedule ahead of time and make sure you won’t skip your meals. Choose complex carbohydrates and avoid simple carbohydrates. Complex carbohydrates like food products derived from whole wheat, Oats, Cereals will help you keep your huger at bay.Eat Eggs and other high protein food items in your breakfast. This will help boost your fuel to the brain continuously.

Depression is another culprit of attention and concentration distraction. Research shows that if you are feeling empty, hopelessness or indifferent, trouble focusing then you are in depression.

The first step you need to do when you think you are feeling depressed is to consult a doctor or counselor. Depression can be treated and cured. Some talk therapies and medications can successfully treat depression.

Medicines that you are taking for certain medical conditions can be cause of concentration lack and distraction. If you are feeling that medications are making you drowsy, and unable to concentrate. Sometimes medicines used to treat depression can also make you unable to pay attention to your work.Consult your doctor and talk to him about the same. Changing the medication will help you at times.

These are the most important culprits that kill attention/concentration there by affecting your productivity. We hope this article have helped you to know how to overcome them and become more productive.

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