My work environment has a lot to do with my motivation. Listening to inspirational videos, journaling, reading quotes, and speaking with my accountability partners keeps me thriving. In addition to my physical environment, I’ve constantly working on my interpersonal relationships as well. I’m learning to say “no” more. And instead say “yes” to more things that benefit me in the current moment.
This includes declining invites to things that won’t serve me, not picking up the phone if I’m in the middle of something important, spending more time with people who make me feel happy, and working on myself. You don’t have to be the victim of your environment. You have the choice to be the architect of it.
Whether you’re working from home and can’t find your focus, or feeling distracted in an open office environment. It’s vital to find your focus by creating a space that helps you focus, no matter where you are. We’ve all been there…sitting at our desk with intentions of working but no desire to start. When I feel like this, I do my best to change my environment to one that makes me feel more inspired to work. If you have limited spaces to work in, these tips will help you create your own sanctuary to work in.
You phone and computer is intentionally designed to get your attention which makes it very distracting. Our brain is stimulated when we receive notifications, we feel inclined to check it. I know that if my notifications are on when I’m seeking to do concentrated work, it won’t get done because I always end up scrolling.
I combat this by turning all my notifications off and setting a timer for the amount of time I want to work before I take a break. The timer helps me know when it’s time to take a break and helps me track how long I’ve worked on one specific task for.
Depending on the task you need to get done, listening to music, podcasts, or YouTube videos may help you focus. When I used to work at an advertising agency, I would listen to business and marketing podcasts while I would do reports or admin work. It was tedious work at times so the podcasts motivated me and stimulated my mind.
When I’m cleaning my house or checking emails, I like to listen to music. This can be distracting for some, if so try listening to sounds without words such a white noise or brain.fm. You can find plenty of playlists on Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube. If you want to take your noise reduction to another level, consider purchasing noise canceling headphone like these Bose ones.
Set aside time for uninterrupted work. These are often referred to as time-blocks. Time block your daily tasks on your calendar. Assign time periods for your projects so you have a plan in place. Let the people around you know when you plan to complete uninterrupted work. If you have team members who love to Slack all day, or you typically receive unexpected phone calls, or family who love to ask you to do something at unexpected times of the day, communicate your boundaries. Let them know that from 11:00-11:40am, you will be doing focused work and will not be available.
Make this time non-negotiable. Think about it as if it were an important meeting. If you were in a work meeting, I bet the people interrupting you would understand why you didn’t answer them right away. Treat your focused work time like that. When I first started going to the gym, what motivated me to consistently go was I scheduled it into my calendar like a meeting. I would literally tell my friends that I couldn’t make it to happy hour because I had a meeting at the gym. This method works, I promise you.
Creative work tasks require your undivided attention and full mental capacity. Schedule these projects when you feel energized. These are often the most daunting tasks of the day for me so I like to do them in the morning. Having them done by mid-day makes me feel accomplished. This then makes the reactive projects and meetings later in the day easier to get through. Reactive tasks are answering emails, responding to DM’s, texts, phone calls, less important meetings, administrative tasks etc. These are tasks that take less brain power but need to get done.
I know there will be work that may be difficult to plan because of your work structure. However, when you can control how your day is structured, do so. Don’t leave everything to chance. Communicate with your team or business partners. Don’t expect anyone to know what you want without you telling them. When I was working in the corporate world, there were specific meeting times that my team knew I preferred over others, and for the most part they respected those times of the day. As an entrepreneur, I craft my entire day to best fit my productivity.
We’ve all been at the point, where we have so many things to get done that we don’t know where to start. Analysis paralysis is real! The average human makes 35,000 decisions in a day. Focus your efforts on the most important tasks. The easiest way to do this is to do a brain dump. Write everything you want to get done in a single day down. Then circle the three most important.
Next take action on the first one. If you don’t complete all three, make them priorities for the next day. You’ll feel so accomplished just knowing that you took some constructive action instead of procrastinating.