How to Remain Focused
A constant hindrance to my productivity is my ability to remain focused. Sometimes it feels like my attention is nonexistent and I am trying to hold on to something that keeps pulling away from me. I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels like this, so, how do we remain focused? What strategies can be used to better concentrate?
In looking for answers I stumbled across the work of Cal Newport, an author, and professor who writes on technology and culture. His methods of deep work and time blocking are strategies I have now implemented and have aided in my ability to concentrate for longer periods of time.
What is deep work?
Deep work is a term popularised by Cal Newport, who describes it as uninterrupted, focused work. Newport believed that to learn is an act of deep work, especially as to truly learn the hard stuff, intense focus is key.
Important in ensuring deep work are the tools used to achieve goals. For example, it is generally helpful to work in a quiet environment, without distracting elements, and a set routine.
When you build the deep work habit, your capacity for focus and ability to get work done will strengthen. The important part is starting and adjusting your routine based on what works best for you. If you work best on mornings, factor that into your schedule. The importance of deep work lies in getting quality work done at designated periods of time.
When doing deep work it’s important, as far as possible, to not multitask. According to neuropsychologist Dr. Cynthia Kubu, when multitasking, we’re really task switching, and as human beings, we are more wired to monotasking and focusing on one task at a time. Multitasking is not well suited for deep work as switching from task to task in quick succession often leaves us distracted, with lingering thoughts on the past activity (Newport, 2016). If multitasking, it is better to do it with shallow work where the activities are not cognitively demanding, like listening to music or audiobooks while cleaning (Newport, 2016).
So, to go deep we have to put strategies in place to maintain focus, reduce distractions and manage our days effectively. To do this Newport advises time blocking, which helps in the management of daily and weekly tasks.
Time Blocking and Time Batching
Timeblocking is where certain activities are set for certain times during the day in a calendar, bullet journal, or planner. It’s a scheduled table with set times for the different activities to be done during the day.
Similar to this, time batching involves doing similar activities in a certain timeframe. For example, batching admin work in the morning and creative work in the afternoon.
The intent of these two time management techniques is to improve focus and attention. So rather than attempting to multitask, everything has a set time to be done and ‘deep work’ is more likely to occur.
Important in remaining focused is the type of deep work that you do. This is dependent on how your life is structured, but the different types of deep work, according to Newport, are:
- monastic — where nearly all time is focused on deep work, with the elimination of all shallow activities.
This involves disconnecting from the world, like those writers retreats where you leave your regular life and go to a different place, with limited distractions to focus on writing.
- bimodal — where time is split into deep work and shallow work, on an annual, monthly or weekly basis
With this method, shallow work has its structured time, maybe you spend three days of the week doing shallow work and then two days doing intense work with no interruptions.
- rhythmic — where your day is scheduled into deep work and shallow work
With this structure, the mornings can be for deep work and evenings for shallow work or vice versa. The intention is to build a daily habit or a set routine where both deep and shallow work is done in their designated times.
- journalistic — where deep work is fit wherever your schedule allows it to happen
The journalistic method is for persons who are easily adaptable and can switch from shallow to deep work or vice versa with ease. It’s especially well suited to those with jobs where things often happen at a moments notice, requiring you to be always ready to act.
I’d say my schedule is more of a rhythmic one due to my set daily routine. Sometimes it does get a bit journalistic though and there’s the need to adapt, like while on vacation and still needing to get some work done. Whichever structure you end up working with, remember, it’s okay to be hopeful when implementing new systems, but it’s also important to set reasonable standards for yourself. So don’t start off trying to work for 6 hours straight. Be realistic and build your resilience. You can start off with 20 minutes of work and gradually increase time spent on work after that.
My experience with time batching and time blocking
I have time blocked and time batched using my bullet journal and digital calendar for a few months now and have found the combined analogue and digital methods to be quite effective.
With the bullet journal I write my weekly goals on one page, with the work and personal goals I wanted to complete written down. Using my calendar and the weekly goals page as reference points, I fill in my daily log or daily tasks page. The daily log consisted of the tasks from the weekly goals page broken down and spread throughout the week.
For instance, if my goal for the week was to finish an essay for a school, the daily log would have something like:
- write introduction for essay
- write topic sentences and main points for essay
- look for studies to back up argument
I write the actual time I work on these activities on the daily log, while the calendar has the original time I set out to do the activity. Sometimes the planned time to get things done doesn’t line up with when things actually occur, this can be indicative of a need to be realistic with what I can get done, or something in the schedule that needs to be moved around. It can also simply mean that your week just looked different from how you originally planned, maybe there were last minute meetings, or last minute errands to run. You can take note of this in your journal or whatever tool you use.
In terms of the calendar blocking, all events and activities are placed on the digital calendar, with the different activities having different colours. The digital calendar sends reminders for when the different tasks are to be done and also visually let’s me know how my schedule for that week is.
The below shows how my calendar or time blocking currently looks:
Time blocking helps me know what to do during the day and has made me more intentional about the things I work on. I’ve found that I work best if I start the day doing my readings and note-taking, and end the day with practical activities like essay writing or discussion questions. Having the day split into the different types of work that I do helps with my concentration and commitment to that current task as opposed to when I just used to pick a task item by random to be done. My focus and consistency in work has thus improved.
That said, there have been hurdles to the managing of my time, the main one being my social media usage.
A key hindrance to deep work is the internet and social media. Distraction is the opposite of depth, it in fact, prevents depth and focus from occuring, and the internet is the ultimate distractor (Newport, 2016). While the internet provides a lot of assistance in accessing information and getting our work done, we have to manage how we use it so that it is not a constant enemy of our lives.
As Nicholas Carr describes in The Shallows, the internet is programmed to consistently scatter our attention and is by design, an interruption system. Interestingly enough, part of my quest in learning how to better focus was not only spurred by my wanting to get more work done, but also my wanting to read more books. As I was rediscovering my love of books and reading more consistently for the past year or so, I realised that focusing on a book for a long period of time was a challenge for me. While I don’t feel it’s necessary to sit down and read a book in one sitting every single time I read, I wanted to stop glancing at my phone and checking social media every time I was trying to read my book. In order to better focus on my reading, I started playing ‘read with me’ videos in the background and consciously deciding not to check social media for a specific timeframe. You can also find many study with me videos to help maintain your focus.
What this shows is that when we place limits on how we use social media and the internet, we can get more done. If we have boundaries and limits on the internet and the social media apps we use, we can better manage the constant bombardment of notifications and messages that abound. This is not always easy, as these apps are made to distract us (though distraction is not always bad), the problem comes when we want to do deep work but we still exist in that fragmented state, longing to check our phones or open another tab just to see what’s up and happening in the world.
To better maintain my focus I’ve set up social media blocking extensions to my laptop and regularly utilise focus mode (check your phone settings for this or use blocking sites like Forest) on both my phone and laptop so that I only use social media at specific points during the day.
Here are my recommendations for ways to have boundaries with the internet and social media:
- Removal of distracting objects like phones when working
- Social media blocking tools like Forest or the focus mode setting on phones
- Use of more analogue systems such as bullet journaling or note-taking in physical notebooks
- Actively choosing when to check certain apps, like during a lunch break or when finished work for the day.
How can you deep work?
So if you want to get more focused and intend to use time blocking to do so, what should your approach be?
- pick a system or several systems (I use my calendar and bullet journal but you can use a planner or a regular notebook)
- know your schedule or create one from scratch. What are the absolute things in your schedule that need to be done?
- find a good working location and form helpful work habits. (if you need those snacks, get em!)
- have a shutdown system. This is the wind-down or tieing up of loose ends step that ensures proper separation between the workday and your downtime.
- implement the method and be aware of what works, what doesn't, and how you might make changes
- take breaks! Rest is important
- exercise! take a quick walk away from your desk (I admittedly do not often do this but I’ve heard it helps, especially when that walk is in nature)
- cultivate hobbies outside of social media; read books, bake cookies, do something else!
Positives of the deep work and time blocking method:
- helps organise your day and prioritise when certain activities are to be done
- makes you more intentional with your time
- improves focus
- assists in the day being thematically set and easy to follow and build a routine on
Time blocking may not be for you if:
- it feels like too fixed a routine
- your schedule is constantly changing and requires you to respond to a lot of last-minute demands
If the routine feels too fixed, you can time block on alternative days so that it’s not just the same schedule every day. You can do the same activities in the same way on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and then have different activities at different times on Mondays and Wednesdays. For instance, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays you spend doing admin work in the mornings, and Tuesdays and Thursdays you do admin work in the evenings.
Even if time blocking doesn’t work for you as a system you can still implement the principles of deep work to improve your ability to focus and remain attentive to the work you are doing.
Key takeaways
A lot of this ties to what we focus on, and what we give attention to. So if something matters to you, don’t make a half-hearted effort, actually commit to doing the work with as few distractions as possible.
Overall, consider what might work for you and your lifestyle. It may mean making some difficult choices, drawing some hard boundaries with yourself, and doing the dreaded act of checking your screen time. If you dislike the number of hours spent on your phone (as I certainly did when I checked my screen time) and if you desire to be more focused, then put systems in place, build better habits and be kind to yourself on the journey of being a little less internet dependent.
For more resources on time management and attention:
Next time we’ll look at something closely linked to time management, energy management.
