From the course: Time Management Tips

Regaining focus with reminders

From the course: Time Management Tips

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Regaining focus with reminders

- Ever had the experience of responding to an email and then you click on a link, the link takes you to a social media site or some other place and all of a sudden you're lost? Or have you started a project, something that's really important, but then something distracts you and you get lost in thought and ten minutes later you're no longer working on that project? These happen because of both internal and external distractions, internal meaning I have thoughts that just take me somewhere else, and external meaning, well, someone knocks on your door or calls you and says, I've got a quick question. Focus is like a muscle. The more that we use it, the more that we practice using it, the stronger we become with it, and we can use a few tools to help us strengthen that muscle. First of all, I recommend just on the calendar having reminders before appointments and after, meaning at the end of an appointment. Why do we do that? Well having the reminder beforehand lets us know, hey, it's about time to switch gears, maybe setting that reminder 10 minutes before you need to switch gears. Also having the reminder at the end gives you confidence that you don't have to keep checking your clock. The clock will tell you when it's time to shift gears. Second, we can use apps. For instance, we can use a plugin on our browser to help us stay away from sites that are distracting or spend too much time on them. A couple of options that I've seen work well are StayFocusd or LeechBlock. These will let us know, hey, this is a site you might get lost in. And third, I like to use just the simple timer. Any timer will do. Personally I prefer the cube timer, and the idea is that that timer lets you know, hey, I need to stay focused on this thing until the beep goes off. For instance, even I experience getting distracted while I'm processing something like email, so I'll turn the cube timer to five minutes and that lets me know that I need to stay focused on processing for the next five minutes, and at the very worst, if I got distracted then it pulls me back and says, hey, you should be working on processing right now. Technology is a powerful tool, not just to do more but also to help us stay more focused.

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