Mental Fitness Mondays: Get Focused!
Where does your time go?
I’ve spent the last few weeks sharing Mental Fitness Monday posts about Self Care. Now we’re shifting to the next of the ‘Big Four’ elements; Self Organisation. Today I’m starting with the skill of being able to stay focused.
The ability to focus - what a wonderful thing. We all have this to a certain extent, and yet most people I know sometimes feel scattered. Many of the people I work with have competing priorities and they’re not quite sure what to do for the best. Some have a diagnosis of ADHD which adds to their challenge to stay focused.
What are you focusing on?
Have you ever found yourself focusing for a long time on the ‘wrong’ thing? Such as your social media feed, instead of getting that important email drafted… I know I have!
The skill of being able to focus isn’t just about prioritising the right things but also focusing for a decent length of time. Essentially this is about managing your time well.
Embarrassing revelation here… around 10 years ago I got into playing Candy Crush. It became a minor addiction! I eventually noticed that it was taking up more and more of my time, so one day I said to myself ‘I need to delete this game!’ - and so I did. I've never missed it and yet, I am embarrassed to say that I probably played it for a few hours every week instead of doing things to build Real Clear. Thankfully my ‘focus’ muscles have improved a lot since then.
What are your top tips for staying focused? Some of mine are:
- Having goals for myself and a clear plan of what I want to achieve.
- Removing distractions when I really need to focus on something challenging.
- Rewarding myself for achieving a difficult challenge.
- Using ‘when... then...’ - saying to myself ‘when I have achieved ‘X’ then I am allowed 'Y’. For example, when I have sent that report in, then I can make myself a cup of tea.
- Turning challenges or tasks that seem boring or hard into more fun ways of working. For me, dealing with finance is both boring and challenging, but of course it has to be done. To make it more pleasant I go somewhere nice for food and drinks with my colleague while we work together on the accounts.
- Be intentional in your day. There's nothing wrong with playing games, lazing in front of the telly, or scrolling the internet - as long as we know that we're choosing to do those things and we put a time frame around them.
It can be hard to focus
Some people, especially those with ADHD or other attention difficulties, find being able to focus harder than other people, but everyone can improve. Some people also hyperfocus, which is where they get so intently drawn into one topic or task that they lose sight of other important priorities, like self care or remembering to pick the kids up from after-school clubs. In the case of hyperfocus it can help to use timers and alarms to help you remember other priorities. If you're telling yourself that you ‘just can't focus’, how about challenging yourself to think in a different way? Start small and build up - you can do it! I’ll share more thoughts on this in future posts.
A couple of coaching questions to get you thinking: What do you need to focus on to help you be your best self? What are you focusing on that is wasting your time?
