Tuesday, November 18, 2008

How to stay focused at your work?

This article is devoted to staying focused at workplace. I came across an article on “18 ways to stay focused at work”. There are few things that I liked and there are a couple of things that I didn’t agree with. Let me list down what I liked and think it can prove useful for other people.

1) Write out a daily task list and plan your day- At Kern we have a status call called “Heads up”. It is good way to keep each other informed of what each of us are doing. It also helps us prioritize our tasks for the day.

2) Allocate time to various task on your to do list- Allotting time for task will not only make you productive but you can use the rest of the time in reading up articles or writing blogs.

3) Avoid checking personal mails first thing in the morning- You don’t realize but it takes a good amount of your time in the morning.

4) Change your status in the IM- Set the status in the IM as busy if your do not want to get disturbed. While working this is a major distraction that can hinder your work and can make you less productive.

5) Clean your desk- Keep your desk clean. Do not pile up too many things on your desk. A dirty desk might be irritating.

6) Close multiple windows-Avoid working in multiple windows. Close the one’s which you don’t require.

7) Avoid taking long and extended breaks- Taking break from work and sipping tea or coffee can energize you, but if you indulge in extended breaks it might break the flow of your work.

6 comments:

ripul said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ripul said...

If you do all of this mechanically, wont you become some in office who no one likes to work with?

I would add a bit of socializing in this, a bit of interest in others work, a bit of helping others, and a bit of smile... it will go a long way in making you a well respected colleague, professional, and a great person.

Anonymous said...

Agree with most of the points. Clean Desk-Top and Clean Desktop and Clear approach for work-time axis graph makes one winner.

One way of thinking that works well is -
"Think as if thats your own ownership company and what would you like your employees to do! " Or "Am I giving worth the penny the company is paying me" Or "am I am key player in the team and had became indispensable"

An honest answer will change the attitude and work will be a passion and other helping things will come automatically and distractions will go off.

Write more frequently.

Rashmi said...

Agree with most of your points & I have seen that this focus really helps you to meet all the quality and delivery expectations.

Rips also has a valid point. Experiences are the best way to learn at a work place. So the more you interact with others and try and understand their work, the more the opportunity for you to learn and grow.

Keep writing regularly, would love to read more of such stuff.

Pradeep said...

Great stuff.
How about staying focussed in life issues??
I believe if your life focus is correct and going in right direction, your work focus improves.

Jethro said...

Great post Mousumi, thanks for sharing. Using these tips surely helps a lot to stay focus. I also want to share some of my ideas on how I manage to stay focus at work. A healthy exercise in the morning helps me to have an active mind and body. This way I can get to working mode when I start to work. Another is I also list my entire tasks; I actually automate it using a time management tool. Using this tool I also set an amount of time to do each task. Lastly self discipline helps me a lot to avoid distractions while working and stay focus on work. This way I can manage do more tasks and finish it on time.

At the end of the day I feel the fulfillment that I finish work. With self discipline and the right online tools I would say that I can stay focus to work and avoid distratcions while working.