Use a Routine to Help You Weed Out Distractions

By using a routine, you’re establishing habits. When you have habits, it allows your brain to function on autopilot. That means you’ll do things without really giving it much thought because the action is ingrained within you.

Having a routine is good for you because it works to keep distractions at bay. Plus, if you’re currently finding that you do have distractions, establishing a routine can knock those out of your way.

Most people, even if they work from home, are more productive and better focused when they use a routine for everything they need to do. This begins with choosing the right time for setting the alarm.

Having a routine lets you know what you have to do next without really putting much effort into it. For example, your routine should include a time for when you need to need to take a shower.

Some people have a routine where they do it in the mornings after rising because it helps them to wake up. Others feel they get more done when they get dressed first and have breakfast, so they schedule their shower in the evenings.

You can set a routine for when you eat and this can include all of your meals as well as any snack breaks. You’ll be able to cut out distractions when you have a routine for when you work, so set a schedule for starting as well as for when it’s time to leave work behind.

Some people find it’s better to have a schedule that breaks down each part of their workday, such as some time that’s set aside for creative tasks while other time is set aside for administrative tasks.

Using a routine allows you to weed out distractions that impede productivity daily. When you conquer the daily distractions, you gain more hours in your week. To create a routine that fits your life, you would first need to make a note of all the things you need to get done in any given day.

This list needs to have both professional and personal life tasks, since they go hand in hand. For your professional list, you would create a routine that establishes what steps you need to take in order to finish a project.

This routine can be based on daily or weekly habits. Once you have the list written down, you’ll want to look over it to see what can be lumped together. For example, if you know you get distracted from work by returning phone calls, save responding until you’re doing something on your daily routine, such as walking on the treadmill during your exercise regimen.

It can be helpful to use a planner to schedule your routine. Your routine may take some tweaking once you get started, but don’t be afraid to ditch what’s not working for you and changing it up for what will help you.

Don’t Use Your Work Space for Other Things

There’s a reason that the IRS says if you have a home office it should be used solely for that purpose and nothing else. It’s because using a home office for multiple purposes can lead to a crossover between professional and personal use.

If you have a workspace, you should be working. Mixing up the space can happen anywhere that you’ve set aside to work. It happens when you let boundaries slide. But it really is best just to use it for the intended purpose and not for any other reason that people commonly choose to do.

For example, some people choose to eat at their desk or whatever their workspace is. This is a bad idea - not just for health reasons, but it’s also bad for productive purposes. You get less done physically and mentally.

When you mix work with eating or any other habit, it blurs the lines between what’s work and what isn’t. You can easily make the mistake of setting yourself up to think that it’s okay to work and it’s okay to not work when you’re in your space.

At your desk, your purpose should be to focus and to be productive to work on whatever task or project is before you. But when you choose to eat or to do something else instead, it steals that focus and productivity.

This happens because the brain is straddling two functions when you do that. You need to have boundaries between personal tasks and professional ones. Otherwise, your brain remains in the work mode and doesn’t relax and get a break from the work.

This can lead to overwhelm, which in turn can lead to brain fog. On the other hand, if you’re constantly using the space for other things in addition to work, the brain won’t want to get into work mode.

It’s important to establish what your workspace is for and what it’s not for. Your space isn’t supposed to be a spot to hang out and watch TV. It’s not meant to be the area where you play with your pets or your kids.

It’s not supposed to be the place where you play games or wonder what you’re going to have to eat for dinner. When you treat your workspace like any other space, you lose the benefit of conditioning the mind to fall into the habit of work recognition.

You can establish the work habit to create a routine in the mind. As soon as you sit down in your chair, your brain automatically kicks into thinking, “It’s time to work now,” but if you use the space for other purposes, it won’t do that for you. Save the relaxing activities and tasks not related to work for other spaces. You’ll get more done.

A Proven Way to Boost Your Creativity and Focus

You might be a creative who wants to find more ways to up your productivity and your focus. But if you’re like most creatives, focus might not be your strength. You’re not alone in thinking that way.

Most creatives don’t think in concrete, specific terms when it comes to business things. That’s because the business side feels removed from the creative side. So what you need to do is tap into the creative side to boost the business side.

There is a proven way that you can boost your creativity to get more accomplished and be able to reach your goals. You have to get specific with your thoughts. Sort of having an idea of what you want, or need isn’t going to work.

It’s only when something is specific that you can identify it and work on accomplishing it.

Once you’ve narrowed down what it is you’re after, add a time constraint. For example, if money is what you need, you wouldn’t spend time saying, “Think about where or how I can get more money.”

Instead, you’d say, “What are 5 business models I can put into effect within 10 minutes?” This helps you to develop concrete ways to help take your creativity to the next level.

By having a specific goal with your thoughts, you’ll come up with ideas to improve whatever it is that you need. This step of coming up with ideas within a certain time limit keeps you from wasting time, but it also works for creatives because they don’t have to spend a lot of time thinking of the business side, which can drain creativity.

The ideas that you come up with by adding time constraints can also be put into play faster than if you were vague and spent hours or days trying to come up with a solution.

With your business, you’ll need to learn the best way to market it.

You might have gone back and forth trying to come up with ways that you could do this, but you weren’t able to pin anything down. Rather than spending a lot of effort thinking about this step, you could say that you were going to make a list of the pros and cons of a certain kind of advertising within 15 minutes.

By giving yourself that time limit, you turn into a game and this can produce quicker results and give you ideas for solutions. Plus, when you’re specific about what you want and you introduce that time limit, it boosts your creativity because your focus is intentional rather than running in different directions. It does this because it’s easier for the mind to focus for shorter periods of time versus thinking that you have several hours or days to come up with something.