What is focus time? (5 ways on how to achieve more!)

What is focus time

Every one of us has 24 hours in a day. Why do some people achieve more results than others? As a manager in a software business, there are so many different aspects that I must keep my eye on. Project management, team management, client relationships and some more technical aspects. To deliver a project on time and with quality, I must divide my teams time and my time. So what is focus time?

Focus Time is a simple time-management technique that can change your life. The technique, when set up and implemented, requires you and your team members to work several defined short intervals. Outside of that time, you can attend to the clutter (emails, social media and other distractions).

Why do you need focus time?

Being able to focus on one thing for a well-defined period produces better work. It also helps get the work done quicker. With less noise, you also tend to have less stress and worry. If your mind is in a stress-free environment your creativity booms.

To be focused means you need to have goals and objectives defined. Once you know where you are going you can organise your time around achieving the goal is short, focused bursts.

How to get more Focus Time

In a complex work environment like today’s, each person must wear many hats each day. To find the time to focus can be a challenge. Here are some techniques I use myself and for my team. Later, I will show you a tool, RescueTime, that shows you where you spend your time, how much and for what periods of time.

1) Improve Self Belief

You need to believe in your own ability to follow through on a schedule. Focus becomes a lot easier when you can manage up and down and know the urgency at the moment. Most urgent tasks are not important and can wait for later. You need to believe in your ability to make the right call.

2) Get Rest

Not getting the right amount of sleep for you can lead to impaired cognitive ability. To set yourself up for success, make sure you get 7-8 hours of sleep each night.

3) Set Daily and Weekly Goals (Get accountability)

As a manager, setting the tone of what is important for the day or week will help your team to get their focus dedicated to the right tasks. By communicating and providing the schedule, it’s clear what needs to happen. There will be urgent issues that arise during the day and can derail a schedule. Working together and continually defining the focus will keep you on track.

4) Schedule in advance and with set focus periods

Once the goals and objectives are defined, it’s up to you to focus your own time. Getclockwise defines it like this.

Swerve, Stack and Schedule.

  • Swerve: Learn how to ignore people: Delay your response to incoming messages. Rather have a focus time for that. It will allow you to be more thoughtful in your response and reduce the back and forth of emails.
  • Stack – Schedule your meetings back-to-back in your calendar: First thing before you start your workweek, re-arrange events to maximize your (and your team’s) productivity. Try to create more meeting zones so that you have larger chunks of time to dedicate real work focus time.
  • Schedule – Block off Focus Time on your calendar: Once you have the blocks in place, you and your team can look at the week’s goals. Place the focus blocks in your calendars’ and stick to them. Protect your focus time.

To add to this, make sure your focus time is at your peak performance times. If you are sharper in the morning, make sure your plan pushes more focus time here.

5) Declutter your space

I don’t know about you, but I work better when my workspace is clean. Sometimes I find myself cleaning up my space before getting to the focus time. Everyone’s circumstances and preferences are different, so you need to figure this out. For example, if you work at home and it’s too busy to focus, think about going out for periods of time. Have a look at this blog post on how to declutter your brain.

Rescue Time

Rescue Time is an Automatic time-tracking and distraction blocking tool you can run on your PC all day long. RescueTime shows you exactly how long you spend on apps and sites down to the minute.

Find out more and use the free version. Upgrade to premium for 14 days free.

RescueTime

Features

  • See exactly where your time goes.
  • “Turn off” distractions like social media and news.
  • Stay focused on goals all day long.
  • Keep track of time spent in meetings and calls with one-click.

Summing it up

Focus time can help you and your team achieve your goals. With more time dedicated to the right tasks, you should see more quality work. Your team will also feel less stress and learn skills to manage time more effectively.

So now that you know what focus time is, it’s up to you to find the time.

Are you ready to Launch into the Digital Space?

Six Tips to Declutter your Brain?

How do I declutter my brain

In this modern world, it’s easy for your mind to become overwhelmed. There are a ton of things we must do each day. Trying to keep all these thoughts at the forefront of the brain can be tricky. Add to this, thoughts about past events, and where you want to be in the future, and you have a melting pot inside you. On the internet, there are tons of strategies on how to deal with this, but I am going to focus on the ones that I apply daily to maintain calm. How do you declutter your brain? Let’s first see what the signs are that you might have this problem. And we all suffer from this at times in our life!

Signs of a cluttered brain

1 – Loss of focus

Focus is the ability to look at a task and be present at the moment to get it done. Sometimes for long periods. But if you are easily distracted by other things that need doing, and you can’t seem to prioritise things, you end up doing a few half jobs. This is because your concentration levels are low.

2- Decision Making is difficult

When you can’t decide whether to make potatoes or rice for dinner could be a sign of a cluttered brain. When you have a thousand thoughts passing through your mind in a second, can cause an inability to make simple choices.

3 – Unable to let go

Often a cluttered mind shows up as a cluttered workspace or home. In extreme cases, this could become hoarding. From the above inability to make simple decisions, you end up holding onto everything. Because you can’t prioritise, your workspace will have every paper open on it. Your PC will have hundreds of windows open and thousands of emails you’ll never look at again waiting to be opened.

4 – Creativity/Abstract thinking wanes

A lot of work these days is conceptual and requires you to think and compile solutions in the brain. If you know you are good at this but not able to do it anymore, it can mean your brain is fatigued. Perhaps you no longer have the passion to do your creative hobbies? Perhaps they become too hard and less enjoyable?

5 – I’m Tired”

“I’m tired” are words of a tired brain. Especially if they are spoken early in the morning.

Tips on: How to Declutter your brain and think better

These are the techniques and tools that I have picked up over the years. When I become aware of the above symptoms, I remember to apply this.

1 – Write it down

Having so many thoughts in my mind can really make me anxious. By writing them down seems to move them on. Once they are on the paper, I can see them for what they are. Probably just a set of tasks that I want to happen. To try and stay on top of this, I manage upfront in the morning by writing and prioritising. By doing this, I know where to start. At the end of the day, I reflect on the list and see if I made it happen. Did something else come up? By tracking what I want to do and what happened, also helps me to understand the real priorities of my life.

2 – Stop Multi-tasking

My job managing a software development team, and managing multiple clients means a lot of tasks coming my way. Sometimes I catch myself doing one thing, see another email, and starting on the next task before I have finished the first one. If I allow this to continue, I know that nothing will get done and I will be anxious about the work not done. In these moments I stop, breathe, and relax for about 1 minute.

What is the most important task? Who can I delegate a task to? Who can help me? Sit back and prioritise.

3 – Breath or meditate

At least once a day, for 5 – 10 minutes, I enjoy the feeling of having to do absolutely nothing. I do this each morning to find peace and gratitude for what I have. It helps to clear the mind of all my clutter. I prefer guided meditation. My favourite expert being Andy Puddicombe from “Headspace”. There is even a “Headspace” series on Netflix that will introduce you to the calm.

How do I declutter my brain meditate

4 – Build a Routine

Having a routine can keep you on track. Knowing that this is work time and this is playtime will direct your mind from one activity to the next. You may not follow it perfectly but having it there can bring you back in line. Make sure you include exercise and rest in your routine. Make sure you include family time in there too. Although you must be careful of this as “routine’ing” your family could make them feel like a task. And if you live with a free spirit partner as I do, sometimes you should concede the routine to maintain the love! Check out this post on my Daily Mode of Operation (DMO)

5 – Share Your Thoughts

During a busy day, we can forget to talk to people. There is often a great support structure just waiting for you to connect to. When I feel overwhelmed, I do two things. The first is to talk to my team. We need to be on the same page anyway. Just by talking new ideas are formed, and you might be able to solve issues faster. By doing this you automatically declutter your brain. From an emotional standpoint, I talk to my girlfriend. She is always there to listen and advise. Even if there is no conclusion to an issue, somehow the day feels less cluttered. Sometimes it’s just about letting it go.

6 – Learn to say “No”

As humans, we like to help others. I believe this anyway. But you cannot do everything, and you need to have boundaries. Sometimes there is something fun to do. I too find it difficult to say “No”. But to grow and get the clutter out of my brain, I need to say “No”

Conclusion

It’s normal to have clutter in the brain from time to time but knowing how to move past it is important. Once you start to put in place your ways (there are many more ways than the ones I have mentioned above), you can live a freer life. Things will get done and you will move forward.

Are you ready to Launch into the Digital Space?

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