Ok, I feel like this article from Real Simple is talking to me. I have the attention span of a 5 year old, so that is to say no more than 10 minutes at a time. Do you have that problem?
Well, what I like about this article is helped you diagnose why. They said that there are a couple of reasons you could have problems focusing:
1. lack of sleep
2. stress and anger
3. age and genetics
4. modern distractions.
I personally felt like Stress and Anger are rarely my issue, as well as Age and Genetics (ummm, 25, probably too young to be starting to loose focus).
Lack of Sleep? Sure that could be the issue some days... but I would say overall I get about 7-8 hours a night, so not normally.
I most definitely have a short attention span because of Modern Distractions. Email is definitely always pulling me away from what I am working on... not to mention Facebook, etc. Maybe I should change my habits- no more keeping gmail open all day long; and I am turning off my "pop up notification" in Outlook. That should help the Email Bottleneck. By how else can I regain my focus if modern distractions are my problem? Well, Real Simple suggests:
1. limit multitasking (guilty as charged, if I am not doing 10 things at once I feel like I am not doing enough)
2. take breaks (oooh, great idea- just cant take a break every 30 minutes like I am known to do)
3. alternate high stimulation and low stimulation tasks
4. find your optimal time to work (mine is definitely afternoon, early evening)
5. visualize what you want to achieve
Which one are you? Do you think these tips are helpful? I do! I do!
Article from Oct 2008 edition of Real Simple.
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