Top 5 Productivity Tips On How To Stay Focused and Block Out The Noise

By Nfonsam Glen

What's the first thing you pick up in the morning when you wake up? Your phone, right? We live in a noisy world. There's information everywhere to the extent that it can confuse and derail you. Everyone wants to be successful, but very few people have the stomach for it. To attain your goals and objectives in life requires making sacrifices and working hard. Nevertheless, when working, you may easily get distracted by someone else's success. However, remember that some people are just lucky. Clap when they start winning and stay in your lane.

Two types of distractions can undermine your success, namely:

Productivity Killers: These are distractions that actively work against you and will deflate your productivity - a noisy office or environment. Personal distractions like relationship issues and digital distractions like notifications are good examples. We all face such distractions, but keep reading to discover tips on how you can shut down the noise and focus more on your objectives.

Shiny Object Syndrome: As a worker or an entrepreneur, you'll be bombarded with mouth-watering offers daily. Every time you check your email, text messages, Facebook, or Instagram notifications, there's always an offer promising to help you earn more money, get more clients, or cut the cost of running your business. If you're not careful, you'll be chasing the next shiny object instead of focusing on your business or work.

If you want to thrive in your business or at work, you need to block out the noise, eliminate all distractions, and focus on what will bring you closer to achieving your goals. Here are five proven productivity tips that have helped employers and employees 10x their productivity levels in no time.

1. Silence Your Notifications

Have you ever tried to brainstorm on something at work but your phone keeps making those sounds that you can't resist? Usually, you'll want to pick up your phone just for a minute to check if there's anything urgent. Ultimately, that minute will become 30 or an hour because you've started a conversation that you can't seem to stop. The consequence is that you'll miss deadlines, make mistakes, or underperform on a task you could have aced.

To help you focus, you should silence your notifications and only check them during specific intervals of the day. For example, you could check your notifications once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Organizing yourself will help you focus.

2. Do one thing at a time.

While living standards are high, salaries are not as flexible, right? It's understandable why you'll want to multitask. You need to put food on the table, and your job won't cut it. However, timing is everything. Trying to do everything at a time will only produce mediocre results. Consequently, you'll hardly get bonuses or promotions at your job, and neither will a business owner attain the full potential of a business.

Do this instead; don't pressurize yourself. Take only one course at a time, read only one book at a time, and learn how to master one social media platform at a time. This approach will help you focus only on the things that matter at the time. If you are at work, don't try to take on everything at once, especially if they are not interrelated.

3. Take a break.

Always take time off. Productivity is not about work, work, work. There are moments you need to take some time away from work and rejuvenate yourself. Recharge your brain and give room for new ideas and information. Regular breaks throughout the day are a life hack. Sometimes you should step out of the work environment, take a short walk, or have coffee. Once you get back to work, you'll be refreshed and probably have a groundbreaking idea.

4. Focus on activities that will increase your income.

Not every activity is worth your time or attention. At a certain age, you have to develop a zero-tolerance strategy for activities that won't move you closer to achieving your goals. At times, saying "NO" is the best answer. It saves you from many distractions and helps you focus on activities that'll help you.

5. Guard Your Calendar

You have to get ruthless about protecting your time. You need a schedule that will prioritize activities that will move you closer to achieving your goals over those that won't. You can do this by using free calendar tools like Google Calendar. At the start of the week, you will have a strict schedule to follow. It'd ease a lot for you. If something important comes up, you'll know how to fit that into your calendar.

Conclusion

Our society has successfully brainwashed us with some rules that will guarantee success. For example, you need to do as many different things as possible, consume as much information as possible, spend time with as many people as possible, watch YouTube videos, listen to as many podcasts as possible, etc. While doing all the above is not entirely useless, I think you should fine-tune it and do what works for you.

Whatever you do, ensure you block out the noise and stay focused. Got any tips to help employers and employees stay focused and block out the noise? Please share your perspective in the comment section. I'm eager to read from you!

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