The advent of AI and its various incarnations has questioned the very value of human effort. And yet, the requirement for menial human work has reduced ever since the industrial revolution, you could argue that AI and automation is just another step in the road to total efficiency.
With less menial tasks being thrusted upon us, an opportunity to spend more time being innovative and creative arises. However, being both innovative and creative requires one key ingredient; focus.
It’s almost ironic then that the very technological growth that allows us to do less, also happens to distract us even more. As technology becomes increasingly integrated into everyday life, our ability to carry out focused work reduces.
This week’s guest post features Aled Nelmes, who shares his insights and five key tips to help the modern worker practise the art of focus.
The modern worker’s problem
Research suggests that an average of 2.1 hours are lost daily as a result of distractions and the average time spent on a task before we get distracted is just 11 minutes. According to Johann Hari’s book ‘Stolen Focus’, technological distraction causes a drop in a worker's IQ by an average of 10 points.
And it’s not just the distraction itself that’s damaging, it’s returning to focus. Getting back to a focused state after distraction can take up to 30 minutes.
Become the most focused member of your team
It’s clear then that the value of focus cannot be understated, and whilst the western world continues to lose productivity to distractions, this guide will allow you to carve through the noise and quickly become the most productive member of your team.
5 Steps to train and improve your focus
Based on research and testing, these are the five best ways you can train and improve your focus:
Improve sleep quality
Practice reading
Change your environment
Manage your stress
Find your flow state
1. Improve sleep quality
Here’s the news that may not shock you, British people are one of the worst when it comes to sleep duration and sleep quality. According to ‘Stolen Focus’ by Johann Hari, 23% of British people get less than five hours of sleep and only 15% wake up feeling fully rested.
Sleeping between seven and nine hours per night, allows your brain to move through the various sleep patterns.
These stages of sleep include:
Wake
Light sleep
Deep sleep
REM (rapid eye movement) sleep
And it’s getting those deeper forms of sleep that allows your brain to make connections from your experiences during the day and attach those to memories, allowing you to learn more and be more creative.
Secondly, during deep sleep, your cerebral fluid channel opens up and removes metabolic waste from your brain. This essentially washes your brain, improving memory retention and improving neuroplasticity and brain health.
Improving your sleep quality therefore comes down to sleep hygiene - habits that when met with discipline, can transform your sleep. And it’s all in the preparation.
Building positive sleep habits
To improve sleep quality, try following these 5 steps:
Be consistent with your bedtime and wake up time: this allows your brain to understand when it’s time to make you sleepy and make you feel awake.
Set up the bedroom for sleep: aim to have an environment which is quiet, dark and maintains a comfortable temperature whilst avoiding bright overhead light.
Remove electronic devices: they produce blue light which stimulates the brain and will cause distractions as you try to switch off and get into a restful state.
Avoid large meals before bedtime: Aim to finish eating around two hours before going to bed, and try to avoid having high-carbohydrate meals.
Exercise: Being physically active during daytime hours will help you to fall asleep more easily at night.
Follow these steps and you will be setting yourself up for better rested, more energised and ultimately more focused workdays.
2. Practise reading
‘Practise’ being the important word here. Reading is a skill and like all skills, needs to be practised regularly.
One of the most common forms of focus that people experience during the day is reading a book - it’s one we’re used to and have grown up with, so allow it to be your focus anchor and make it part of your focus time every day.
What kind of books are best for focus?
There is no preference over fiction or nonfiction here, the important thing is that you read a book that slightly challenges you. Either because it’s on a topic you know very little about or because the quality of literature is to a certain standard.
We best experience and retain focus when we’re being challenged, so select your books wisely.
“But my life is too busy to read books”
I completely understand, however since the average person spends 3 hours and 15 minutes using their phone each day, even replacing one of those hours with reading is enough to begin retraining your focus.
Try to catch yourself during those moments of mindless scrolling and replace it with your book. This could be sitting in bed in the morning or evening, travelling to and from work, or even visiting the bathroom.
3. Change your environment
And by ‘change’, it needs to be permanent change. As Johann Hari describes in Stolen Focus:
“A digital detox is not the solution, for the same reason that wearing a gas mask for two days a week isn’t the answer to pollution.”
It’s the environmental changes and alterations that will improve your focus and remove distraction for the long-term. This applies both to your smartphone and your physical space.
Manage notifications
People are now living on a treadmill of continuous phone checking, and it comes from that buzz in the pocket, screen flashing and distracting red numbers on your app tiles. There is no coincidence that both notification colour and a stop light are the same colour - they are designed to distract and gain attention.
Whether you are using an Android or Apple device, you can switch off both lock-screen and app notifications so that even if you happen to look at your phone to check the time, no notifications will be begging for your attention.
What if it’s an emergency? If it’s an emergency, they’ll call. Or for peace of mind, contact those closest to you and let them know that you're turning notifications off to focus and to call you in the case of an emergency.
Avoid working in your bedroom
Now I appreciate this is useless to those perhaps living in a busy shared house. That said, even public libraries or coworking spaces can offer a safe distraction-free haven to get focused work done.
By working in a dedicated space, you’ll start to associate your bedroom for sleeping and associate your desk for working, allowing you to adapt the lighting and temperature to suit both scenarios.
4. Manage your stress
Stress is unavoidable, and in many cases essential. However, it’s the long-term underlying stress that can often be induced by money problems, overworking or negative relationships that are the damaging kind.
These long-term stresses can cause a constant state of hypervigilance, which is the same response required when in danger, and allows your body to break a fall or jump out of the way of an oncoming car.
The problem is that during this state of hypervigilance, your brain is only focused on danger rather than being present on the task or challenge in front of you. Therefore, managing stress and avoiding constant hypervigilance is essential in training and improving focus.
Some healthy ways to help cope with stress include:
Avoid consuming negative news stories via social media and TV.
Take time to unwind, such as breathing exercises during the working day.
Talk to others - stress is reduced when sharing how you feel with someone you trust.
Avoid recreational drugs and alcohol, certainly excessively.
Exercise regularly, for example 60 minutes of outdoor activity can provide enough endorphins and vitamin D to fuel you through the working day.
Remember, you can only focus in an environment where your brain feels safe - therefore, managing stress is essential.
5. Find your flow state
Flow can only be practised when you are monotasking, whereby you choose to set aside everything else and work on one thing at a time. Distraction and multitasking are the enemy of finding flow, and is important to avoid as much as possible.
The best part about flow is that it's not necessarily only engaged during a work-based task. Flow can be practised and enjoyed during other daily tasks including:
Exercising
Cooking
Reading
Eating
Walking
Cleaning
Showering/Bathing
By committing to the moment and committing to the one task in hand, you’ll find it easier to apply the same mentality and mindset to your creative and challenging tasks. But remember, it’s about habit building, which takes discipline.
The 3 laws to finding flow
Finding flow can be easily achieved providing the three following factors are always engaged:
Choose one single goal or outcome from the activity.
Make sure your goal has meaning.
Try and make sure the activity is at the edge (not outside) of your abilities.
This often explains why freelancers and entrepreneurs often find it easier to find flow, because their livelihood depends on it.
It’s all about practice
I hope this guide has offered value to you as you seek to have impact and become more productive during your day.
Remember, change will not happen in a day, so apply discipline for the first two to three weeks when practising these new habits, and hopefully you’ll find time following that will be a breeze.
This guest post is written by Aled Nelmes on behalf of coworking space and startup accelerator Tramshed Tech. Aled is Tramshed’s client services manager, with previous experience working with over 500 small business as a consultant for Google. He is also the founder of Lumen SEO, an affordable and transparent agency that puts clients in control.