Posts Tagged ‘focus’

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Developing Razor Sharp Focus with Zen Habits Blogger, Leo Babauta

July 22nd, 2011 by Jane

If you’ve just logged into Facebook or your email for the 10th time today or find yourself thinking in Facebook statuses throughout the day, it may be time to read Leo Babauta’s eBook “Focus: A simplicity manifesto in the age of distraction”.

This free eBook contains dozens of practical suggestions to help you enjoy life more, enhance your creativity and get things done.

If there ever was an equivalent of steroids for focus, this book is it – it’s a great tool to help anyone develop razor sharp focus and churn out quality work.

After reading this book, I made a number of changes that dramatically sharpened my focus. I have summarised a number of the strategies in the mind map below.

Create Focus Rituals/Habits: Babauta defines a ritual as a set of actions you repeat habitually.

He argues that rituals can help us to get into a focused mindset and suggests a number of rituals for the morning, before you begin your work, to help you refocus on your work and for the end of the day. For instance, my morning ritual involves having a shower, eating a bowl of healthy muesli with fresh fruit and 10 minutes of meditation. Nowadays, I resist the urge to check my email and Facebook in the morning.

Managing Email: A lecturer once told me “You’ll get 10% more done in the day if you don’t check your email first thing in the morning”.

She was partly right. A more accurate assessment would have been 30%!

I’ve noticed that when I check my email first thing in the morning I feel slightly out of control for rest of the day. In reactive, agitated mode. Far from proactive, productive and peaceful.

Babauta states –

“Have a disconnect time each day. It’s like setting office hours if you’re a professor – you set the times that work best for you, and you can even let people know about these times”.

Set your office “disconnection” hours and be strict with them (8am – 10am is what works best for me). It’s highly likely that you’ll get the majority of work done for the day during these distraction free hours.

Take Time to Reflect and Review: Babauta recommends that we create a simplified list of the top three things we need to do in the day and then complete task number 1 before checking email, Facebook, etc.

Sometimes it’s really tempting to want to check your email before completing the first task. But Babauta states -

“If you feel the urge to check your email or switch to another task, stop yourself. Breathe deeply. Re-focus yourself. Get back to the task at hand”.


Help for Addicts: Don’t kid yourself, Facebook and email is highly addictive. Behavioural psychologist B.F Skinner’s experiments with rats in the skinner boxes illustrated just how addictive unpredictable rewards can be. The reality is Facebook is designed to be addictive. It’s full of unpredictable rewards.

So let’s face it, some of us need help when it comes to controlling the number of times we log into these sites. That’s where blocker programs come in – they either lock you out of the Internet entirely or certain sites that you specify.

When it comes to writing on the computer, some of us are easily distracted. Writing programs, such as Write Room and Typewriter, clear away all distractions and take up the whole screen on your computer. Some programs even make the sound of a typewriter as you write (but a word of warning, this gets kind of annoying after awhile!).

It’s important to note that these applications won’t miraculously solve your problem of getting easily distracted. They are just tools. They will help you sharpen your focus but only if you’re committed and disciplined enough to use them in the first place.

Take a Digital Detox: We need time away from the Internet, television, video games, etc. Time when we disconnect from these digital devices and immerse ourselves in other creative pursuits that will help us to grow. It’s also important for us to take time to reflect on our lives (when was the last time you sat back and thought, “Am I really doing what I want to be doing with my life?”)

Babauta suggests –

“Go on a mini cleanse. Start with something that’s not so scary: perhaps a day, or even half a day. Do this once a week. Later, as you get used to this, try a 2-3 day cleanse and maybe even work your way up to a week.”

Managing Your Space: Remove 95% of all the posters and bits of paper stuck to your office wall (all I have is a Gantt chart and colourful picture of a Hindu goddess). A clear wall means you have less stuff to be distracted by.

You may also want to consider investing in a pair of comfortable headphones. Headphones serve two functions – firstly, they block out the noise made by others so you have more attentional resources available. Secondly, they signal to others that you’re deep in thought and don’t want to be disturbed.

How to Work: Work in focused bursts for 50 minutes (no distractions) and then take a 20-minute break. In your break get away from technological devices. Go for a walk, do some stretches, etc.

When you work it can also help to get away from your computer and work with just a notepad and pen. Again, it’s most likely that you’ll feel the urge to want to go online when you do this for the first time. If this is the case, take a deep breath and refocus.

All in all, I really enjoyed reading “Focus: A simplicity manifesto in the age of distraction”. It was easy to read and written in a clear and focused way. Babauta provides a lot of valuable information and strategies that can easily be incorporated into one’s life.

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Posted by Jane Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Creativity, Lifestyle, Mind mapping, Study Techniques | 51 Comments »


The Facebook Effect: How to Stay Focused for Exams

May 23rd, 2011 by Jane

It’s crunch time. Exams are quickly approaching (less than 2 weeks away) for many students.

If you’re like most students you may have noticed that the amount of time you’ve been spending on Facebook, YouTube or Twitter has significantly increased over the past few weeks or days.

If this is the case, don’t feel bad. It’s completely normal. But it’s still a big problem and the sooner you control distractions in your environment, the better.

Will power and self discipline are great ideas in theory, but at the end of the day after a long day at school, you most likely feel tired and your will power reserves are running low or close to nil. For this reason, it’s quite challenging for many students to resist the temptation to log onto Facebook. The stress and discomfort of thinking about exams also makes many students want to seek relief. The easy way to get relief is to log onto Facebook and switch off.

WIth all that in mind, an intervention is needed. There are a number of applications that you can download that will restrict your access to the internet and help y ou focus. Below are two programmes that I have tested and regularly use to help me stay focused on my work.

Self Control

Self Control is an ideal programme to use if you still need to use the internet for work but don’t want to be able to access certain addictive websites.

It contains a “blacklist” in which you type in the websites you want to be locked out from. When you want to activate the programme, you simply click start and select how long you want to be locked out for. It’s free to download but unfortunately it’s only available to Mac users with OS X operating systems.

Freedom

If the internet is too distracting for you and you don’t need it to complete your work (e.g. you need to read a book or practice solving some equations) then skip Self Control and use Freedom. This nifty little application will set you back $10US, but it allows you to lock yourself out of the web for up to 8 hours at a time.

If you’re unsure about spending $10US at this stage, there is a free trial version available. The good news is this application is available for Mac and Windows computers.

A student asked me with a cheeky smile –

“But what if I activate the programme and then just restart my computer when I want to go back onto Facebook?”

The creators of these applications aren’t stupid and they designed both Self Control and Freedom in such a way that deleting the application or restarting your computer won’t make any difference. You have to wait for the time to run out.

So even if you have poor self control, there is help out there. The key is to be willing to try out these programmes. It may mean that initially you have to force yourself to activate the programme and you may feel uncomfortable. But after some time the discomfort will subside and you will be amazed by how much study you’ll be able to get through in a short space of time.

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Posted by Jane Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Exams, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »


How to stay focused and on task (without deleting Facebook)

July 16th, 2010 by Jane

The Facebook group “Addicted to Facebook” is just shy of 2000 members (1999 members at the time of writing this post). One Facebook addict, Jackie, shares “Wow I can honestly say I’m addicted to facebook. so bad that I need professional help”. Whilst another member states “I think its funny that I get accused of being addicted to Facebook by people who must be on here as much as me to being accusing me of being addicted to Facebook”.

To join such a group indicates that these people have hit rock bottom. They are desperate. But just like any recovering addict, at least these people have taken the first step by acknowledging that they have a problem.

I have a sneaking suspicion that they are not alone and there are many other Facebook users who would easily qualify for such a group but wouldn’t be willing to expose this by pressing the ‘Like’ button.

Afterall, who wants to be viewed as a Facebook Junky who prefers to spend more time in virtual worlds than out in the real one?

After being disturbed by the voyeurism Facebook imposes and his strange obsession for following the profiles of people he didn’t know very well, a fellow blogger recently took the plunge and deleted his Facebook account. He shared -

“While there’s the appearance of connectedness and networking in the Facebook environment, I perceived a huge gap between the real world me and the real world friend with whom I was suppose to be interacting….It [Facebook] is a communication strategy that is neither satisfying nor effective and which is, to my mind, not particularly healthy”.

Whilst I admire this man’s decision to delete his Facebook account in pursuit of more meaningful connections, I still can’t bring myself to delete my profile. I like Facebook too much.

So if you’re like me and you don’t want to give Facebook the boot just yet but you find yourself getting easily distracted by it and you’re keen to reduce your time on there, then keep reading.

Below I discuss a number of strategies that can help you eliminate distracting sites such as Facebook when you need to and develop single minded focus so you can be truly productive and effective when you work.

I have broken down the strategies into four main sections: 1) Training your mind to focus, 2) Preparing your mind and environment for work, 3) Kicking your Facebook habit and 4) Ways to sustain your ability to focus throughout the day.

1) Training your mind to Focus

Meditation appears to be a great way of training your brain to focus on one task at a time. Neuroscientist Dr Lazer and her team MRI scanned the brains of a group of non-religious Westerners who meditated regularly and a group of people who had no previous experience with meditation. What they discovered is that there was increased development in the regions of the meditators’ brains associated with sensory processing and attention than in the non-meditators brains.

Whilst meditation isn’t rocket science, it does take a little practice and patience. If you’re new to meditation or just getting back into it after a long break, find a quiet place to sit and focus on your breath for just 3 – 5 minutes. Alternatively, you can start by focusing on an instrument in a piece of music (Note: Avoid heavy metal or techno music). When you feel ready, increase the amount of time you meditate for.

Another way of training your mind to focus is to use a Distraction card. All you need to do is take a palm card and every time your mind starts to wonder or you succumb to checking your email or Facebook, tick the card and then return to your task. This is a simply way to help you gain greater awareness of just how distracted you are and can also provide useful baseline data.

It may also help to write down any distracting thoughts and revisit them at a later time in the day. Some people even keep Worry notebooks. Basically, whenever they start to worry about something that is unrelated to the task at hand, they jot down the thought and tell themselves they’ll deal with that at 5:30pm or whatever time works for them.

Let me just emphasise that all of the strategies listed above take practice. You can’t expect to have the focus of a longtime Buddhist practitioner of meditation after one meditation session! But after a few days of practice, you will start to see a difference in the way you work.


2) Preparing your mind and environment for work

If my desk is covered in dirty dishes, books and papers and the television is turned on, it’s highly likely I’m going to be distracted and feel agitated whilst I work. This feeling of discomfort is likely to eventuate in me logging into Facebook, Youtube, etc.

On the other hand, the simple act of cleaning my desk and emptying my intray sends a strong signal to my brain: it’s time to get some serious work done.

Stella Cottrell in her book “The Study Skills Handbook” asks us to consider the following –

What kind of study environment suits you best for different stages of the study process? Make a conscious note of what it is that enables you to begin to study: is there quiet or music or background noise? Do you need to be at home or in a library or with friends? Do you need a clear table? What else is needed?

At the beginning of your study session, set clear time limits for how long you are going to work on a particular task for. It also helps to be clear on what you want to work on and accomplish during that time.

3) Kicking your Facebook habit

You may be mentally prepared and your optimal work conditions may be in place (e.g. clean desk, study plan, right equipment) but none of this will make much of a difference if logging into Facebook every 30 minutes has become an ingrained habit.

Similar to a smoker who goes cold turkey, you need to rid Facebook from your system when it comes time to work.

You have a few options in regards to how you go about doing this. I recommend that you either go to a location that doesn”t have Internet access (e.g. a local library or cafe) or download a program that will lock you out of Facebook for several hours during the day (e.g. Freedom, Ez Internet Timer and Times Up Kidz). The programmers of Times Up Kidz offer a 30 day free trial which may be all you need to break your habit of checking Facebook regularly throughout the day.

4) Sustainable focus

If you’ve been working on something for an extended period of time (1 hour plus), your ability to focus and concentrate can significantly diminish. To sustain your focus, make sure you give yourself regular breaks.

Avoid the energy drinks (you know they’ll just make you feel terrible) and drink plenty of water to help you to stay fresh, focused and alert.

If you’ve got any strategies for enhancing focus and concentration, I’d love to hear about them!

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Posted by Jane Tags: , , , , ,
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The myth and madness of multitasking

July 9th, 2010 by Jane

An old Psychology Professor told me recently how he had to write his PhD thesis by hand and paid a lady with a typewriter to type it up for him. Paying typists and drawing graphs by hand was the done thing in academia only a few decades ago.

How times have changed!

One could argue that thanks to word processors, the Internet and online journals, today’s students are able to research and write assignments with relative ease. Checking spelling, getting definitions of certain words and gathering information can be done within a matter of minutes, even seconds (depending of course on the speed of your computer and Internet connection).

Despite these incredible technological advancements, are students today any more productive than people were in the past?

I don’t think so.

21st century students face new challenges to getting their work done – overcoming distractions and not succumbing to the myth of multitasking.

Instead of wasting hours writing up neat notes for a typist, nowadays it’s highly likely that we will waste our time surfing the net, chatting online to our friends, looking at photos on Facebook and reading blogposts (Don’t feel guilty, keep reading!).

When was the last time you checked your email, had the television on, burned a CD for a friend and received a text message all at once? It seems to have become the norm for many of us to do several things at the same time.

Once we distracted ourselves with Spider Solitaire but now when we are bored we find ourselves being lured by sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and/or we feel the need to text message a friend or two.

A Kaiser family foundation study found that young people (8-18 year olds) are now spending an average of more than 7.5 hours a day, seven days a week consuming media (e.g. watching movies and television, surfing the net and playing video games).

Without a doubt such a sedentary lifestyle is likely to negatively impact on our physical health. Research indicates that since 1985 the rate of obesity in boys has doubled and the rate for girls has tripled in Western Australia. According to the Premier’s Physical Activity Taskforce, one quarter of all Western Australian children are overweight or obese.

Whilst the physical impacts are obvious and have been for some time, until relatively recently there has been little discussion on the psychological and intellectual impacts of living primarily in virtual worlds and distracting ourselves with online sites, video games and other gadgets as we work.

A study conducted by the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of London found that people who were distracted by email and phone calls suffered a fall in IQ more than twice that found in marijuana smokers.

Another study at the University of California found that workers took an average of 25 minutes to recover from interruptions such as phone calls or answering email and return to their original task.

So whilst you may feel like your being efficient as you type up that email and chat to your friend on the phone at the same time (Aren’t you so great? You’re doing all these things at once!), don’t be fooled. You’re actually being less efficient in the long run. In fact, researchers have found that you can be up to 40% slower to complete something when you multitask.

In addition, it has been found that multitasking prompts the release of stress hormones which can lead to us feeling frustrated, more aggressive and impulsive.

Professor of Psychology and Neurobiology, Russell Poldrack states -

“There is a cost to the way that our society is changing. Humans are not built to work this way [multitask]. We’re really built to focus.”

Some researchers have even gone as far as saying that constant engagement with sites such as Twitter, Bebo and Facebook may be causing changes in our brains that result in humans being more self centrered with shorter attention spans.

“We know how small babies need constant reassurance that they exist…My fear is that these technologies are infantilising the brain into the state of small children who are attracted by buzzing noises and bright lights, who have a small attention span and who live for the moment” states Baroness Susan Greenfield (British Scientist).

The good news is that you can change the way you work. Just like some people choose to give up smoking, drinking and eating junk food after becoming more aware of the physical and mental health effects, you may now feel compelled to practice focusing on one task at a time and spend less time online.

Recently, I’ve been testing out various strategies and programs to help me practice the art of focus and kick the habit of distracting myself with Facebook, etc. I’ll share more about these strategies in my next blog post.

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