How to focus when work is challenging!
Does this sound like you? You sit down to a challenging project, and quickly find that your mind is focused on anything but that project? While it’s totally normal for your mind to wander when dealing with something difficult, it can also be incredibly frustrating and prevent you from achieving your productivity goals.
I’m diving into several different techniques to help you focus on your work. Approach this with a sense of play and exploration, try each technique and see which one (or ones) work for you!
And bonus, I’m also covering the difference between stress and eustress, and why you want one but not the other in your life!
First, if you recognized yourself in the first paragraph, I want you to know this is totally normal! It’s natural for the mind to wander. Especially when you become overwhelmed, your mind has a tendency to retreat into “safer” areas – things like day dreams, to-do lists, and what you’re making for dinner.
Where’s your mind going?
The key to tackling this problem is to recognize when your mind begins to wander. Once you realize you’ve lost focus on your work, take a moment and notice what you’re thinking about:
- If it’s a to-do list item, make sure you have it jotted down for future reference so it isn’t only living in your brain. The fear of forgetting can keep us returning to these items over and over and prevent us from returning to the primary task at hand.
- If you’re jumping ahead to later in the day, or are lost in a day dream, check out the following techniques to bring your focus and attention back to the present moment.
Bringing your wandering mind back
Here are a few of my favorite ways to bring your attention back to the present moment and help you refocus on work!
The audible exhale
If you’ve listened to other episodes of Solicited Advice, you’ve probably heard me talk about the power of the breath. And today is no exception! When you notice you’ve slipped away from the present to a daydream or to plans for the future or rumination on the past, take three slow, conscious breaths. Bonus points for an audible exhale! After each exhale, remind yourself that now is the time to focus on work.
Check out the audible exhale in this blog post, or if you’d prefer a video, you can watch me cover the technique here.
Break it into small steps
Another technique to help keep you focused and motivated is to break your work into small steps with incentives along the way.
For instance: if you were trying to write a book, instead of seeing the goal as a finished book, set the goal as writing either: 10 pages, a chapter, or for 30 minutes. Pick something that feels achievable to you.
And once you’ve reached that milestone, reward yourself. Pick a reasonable reward that’s enticing enough for you to overcome the challenge. Think of things like a bowl of ice cream, a walk around the block, or 10 minutes cuddling with your cat/dog.
After your reward, sit back down and tackle the next small step you’ve set for yourself. It might help to map out each small step and the reward for completion. Depending on the scale of the project, you might include larger rewards for bigger milestone achievements. For example, you might get takeout from your favorite restaurant when you finish the first draft of your book.
Stress vs. Eustress
And finally, a quick reminder that there’s a difference between stress and eustress. If you find that work is challenging in an engaging way that causes you to learn and grow, that would be eustress, and it’s a great thing. It helps you build resilience in addition to developing a stronger skill set.
However, if you find that the work is challenging in that you can’t bear to wake up each morning or you cry in your car in the parking lot before going into the office, that’s just stress. And it isn’t healthy. It sets you up for burnout, disorder, illness, and disease. It lowers your resilience and makes everything in your life harder.
So if the challenge of your work is stress and not eustress, I would encourage you to find ways to work with your boss to remove some of the pressure of your position, or to consider a career/job change.
I’m sending you a great big hug – you’ve got this!
If you enjoyed this episode of Solicited Advice, check out other episodes, and while you’re there, make sure you subscribe to my YouTube Channel so you don’t miss out on future episodes released each Monday & Thursday!
