The key to focusing is to avoid distraction. A vibrating cell phone or the ding the computer makes with each new email can pull you from your working zone in a flash. Even if you don’t check the phone or email, the noise alone triggers a curiosity in your brain – who called? What did they want? Eventually, whether it’s a second later or ten minutes, you end up checking.

Mute your Computer and Avoid Checking your Personal Email

Muting the computer quiets the noise of the sometimes constant new email sound. Check your personal email at home before work if you like, or decide to only check it before, during or just after your lunch break. This way you can focus now, and have more time to focus on the emails you’ve received. You’re not thinking about both things at the same time.

Silence Your Cell Phone

A vibrating cell phone is not nearly as obnoxious as a loud ringer, but even the vibration can be a distraction to you. Even if you’re not tempted to answer, you probably like to check and see who’s calling you. Then you begin to think about what they might be calling for, and in that time, the caller has left a voice mail. Of course you have to just check the voice mail to see what they wanted. Then you have a reaction to the voice mail that you need to resolve, either now or later. And at this point your concentration level is already long gone. Silencing your phone allows you to ignore it completely, then at a break, when you have time to deal with a phone call, you can.

Reward Yourself

Sometimes checking personal email and phone calls can be a treat to look forward to, especially if you’re waiting for communication from a friend or family member. Save checking your phone and email until you finish a set number of tasks, or at least until the one at hand is completed. You can train yourself this way to focus more completely and established good working habits.

Next week: Step 3 – Use Head Phones and Listen to Music

Increase your focus safely and naturally.