A Guide to Focusing At Work

By Elita TorresBusiness, Entrepreneur, PRODUCTIVITY, RESOURCES
Obstacles Senior Executives Must Overcome when Changing Career When we talk about people facing a career change, we mostly think about younger people who have realized that their current careers aren’t offering enough or who made a wrong career choice. Unfortunately, they are not the only ones who want or need to jump ship. Even seasoned professionals sometimes change their jobs, but that comes with many challenges. If you’re one of them, take a look at the following list of tips on how to overcome such problems. Hurt ego It’s logical that senior executives feel loss of self-esteem and self-worth, embarrassment and shame. After all, they’ve reached a respectable position in their profession and are used to a managerial position. This problem is best overcome by keeping the “usual life” going (family activities, hobbies, etc.) and focusing on your worth outside of the job. You should also be open to learning new things and connecting and sharing the experience with other top executives in transition. Don’t be afraid to ask them for help! Losing resources You may not be used to doing the day-to-day administrative tasks yourself or you may lack some basic habits and skills for details and logistics. If you fall into that category, it’s time you learned new behaviors and organizational skills and started respecting the small tasks that support the whole process. You probably won’t get a high-end job Such jobs are much more difficult to find, and your search will definitely take longer. There are fewer opportunities at this level, which means you’ll need to be much more patient if you’re looking for such a job. That’s why you need to expand your scope, be more flexible and ready to relocate. You might want to take a short-term step back in title in order to eventually move forward. Alternatively, you could explore consulting or starting/buying a business. Feeling abandoned Another problem that senior executives face when changing career is that they feel left out, which leads to lack of self-confidence and self-esteem. Such a crisis of confidence can be very debilitating. One of the best ways to deal with it is to turn to experts in efficient career coaching, who can help professionals unlock unrealized strengths and pursue their limitless potential and who find themselves at a career crossroads and are unsure where to turn. Get in touch with right people Experienced professionals find it difficult to get through senior executives’ gatekeepers, especially since human resources can offer little or no help in this regard. You need to talk to hiring managers about how you can help them reach their business goals. Also, join and participate in executive networking programs, board or directors and venture capital groups. Call-in favors and get help from senior-level friends and colleagues. Age Chances are, you’ll be perceived as being too old or “washed-up”. Naturally, employers will fear that you won’t remain long at the company and will have their concerns about investing in you, especially if you don’t have technology skills necessary to thrive in today’s work environment. To tackle this problem, you should refocus on your exceptional qualifications, proven results and experience, rather than your age. However, you need to know the culture of the company: if there is no-one older than 40, you shouldn’t apply for a job there if you’re 65. Instead, target smaller companies that would appreciate experience, contacts and credibility and stay up-to-date and informed about your industry. Perception of others You might not be taken seriously as a job candidate or others may project their own fears onto you or be in denial or act dismissive. In those situations, you need to tell the story about your departure from the company and let everyone know that you’re ok with the situation. Be genuine, relaxed and humble. If you have a better understanding of the special challenges you’re facing and implement the solutions suggested above, you’ll significantly improve your job search results and decrease your level of anxiety and frustration. This should, hopefully, lead you to a successful career transition.

Staying focused at work isn’t a difficult thing to accomplish with these new strategies and approaches. 

1. Get an app that measures focus. 

The first step to improving the quality of work in your office is making a way to analyze performance. Why?

Because those who take the time to measure make improvements. 

There are a number of ways you can do this. A productivity app is an excellent way to start as it helps improve focus and keeps distractions at bay. Take a look at www.Tracktime24.com.

It’s important to measure how many tasks you’ll be accomplishing and the work that’ll get done. 

2. Keep a journal of your distracting thoughts. 

Even those who have that excellent gift of focus lose themselves in distracting thoughts from time to time. It’s all lost once your mind goes to a movie you watched over the weekend. Your mind could zoom into an item you picked up from the market that you wanted and think about that singular item all day. 

When distracting thoughts make their way into our heads, we have two ways of handling them. We either hold onto them or dismiss the thought entirely. We often turn to punish ourselves for not being dismissive if our habit is to hold onto the thought. 

A great approach to this is to capture the thought so that it does not become a big distraction later on. As an example, you now remember a movie that you wish you saw. Instead of thinking about the movie or trying to remember its title, write down what you know and then move on. 

It will help you end the thoughts, while also allowing you to explore them later.

3. Stop multitasking.

A lot of professionals try to multitask to save valuable time at the workplace. It compromises the integrity of the tasks being done and creates an added lack of efficiency. 

It can be difficult to accurately pinpoint when you’re multitasking. Doing something as small as checking an email when you’re in a meeting is a form of multitasking, and it needs to be cut out. 

Try stopping with one of these apps to help. They block time together. 

4. Make sure notifications are shut off.

Recovering your attention after being distracted is difficult, and it can take up to 23 minutes to fully gain back your focus. This can mean that even a few seconds of lost attention can tally up time doing something that isn’t the task at hand. 

Some distractions may not be able to be helped. Turn your notifications off as they are more in your control than you realize. These little emails, instant messages, and other alerts do not belong to your attention as you work on the fine details of your group project. If it’s at all possible, turn off your notifications entirely. 

If it isn’t possible, try turning them off when you can. This will allow you to focus on one individual task. 

5. Minimize interruptions.

Minimizing interruption helps to improve focus. Making sure interruptions aren’t a possibility is highly important when you’re trying to focus on a specific project. Make sure you make the adjustments so that it’s a possibility. 

Always keep the door shut to your office so you can avoid the small talk and/or questions that cut a hole in your focus. Make sure you keep yourself in a private meeting room when working with a client so that no passerby employee comes to interrupt. 

Working at home is much easier than working through the sound at a local cafe. 

6. Stop Using Distracting Websites.

Most of us can’t stop scrolling down popular websites like Reddit or Facebook when we’re at home. Without even keeping it in your mindset, you’ve spent several minutes of your day scrolling through your favorite website when that time could have been spent working on an assignment. 

Luckily, it’s possible to not let good time go to waste through the use of these channels. It’s possible to remove your favorite bookmarks or delete your account. If you’d like to keep your Facebook, install an add-on you’d have for a child that only allows a certain amount of time on it. 

7. Take 10 minutes.

It’s easier for us to keep our work focus rather than to jump-start it into action. In short, once you’ve started your focus on a given task, you’ll be able to keep focusing on it for an amount of time. It’s difficult to jump-start that much-needed concentration.

If you can’t focus on work, commit to 10 minutes of doing a task regardless of the pace. Doing something for 10 minutes never seems like a long time to allow any project. This will help you start a focus period and continue working on the task at hand.