three little habits:
1. Set a time limit. Pick something important to do,
and set a limited time to do it. That might be one hour, or 20 minutes,
or even just 10 if you’re having a hard time getting into it. The time
limit helps sharpen your focus. If you have limited time to do
something, you’ll be forced to decide what’s important. It also means
you’re not doing some unlimited task that could take hours, but a very
specific one that will be over in X minutes. Setting a limit is good too
for when you decide to process your email — only 20 minutes to get as
many emails processed as you can, for example.
2. Close everything. This means everything possible
on your computer that isn’t absolutely necessary for the task at hand.
If you don’t need the Internet to write something, close it. Close
email, all notifications and reminders, all programs not needed for your
task. If you need your browser open, close all tabs — bookmark them, or
save them to a read-later service like Instapaper. You can always open these sites when you’re done.
3. Pause before switching. So you’ve closed
everything else, you’ve set a time limit for your task at hand, and
you’re getting started … but then you get the urge to check email or
Facebook or Twitter. You want to see what’s happening on Instagram or
Pinterest or Youtube. Stop. Make yourself pause for 5-10 seconds. This
is the key habit that makes the other two work. Take a deep breath.
Think about whether you really want to fritter your life away doing
those things all day, every day, or if you want to do something great.
Choose great, most of the time.
These are little habits, and you can do them. When your time is up,
you can give yourself a few minutes’ break to check your favorite sites,
and then close them again. But when you’re trying to focus, practice
these habits. They’re a small price to pay for a life not frittered away
by distractions.
No comments:
Post a Comment