I’m a fairly driven person. I have a lot of goals, a lot of interests. I always have to-do lists in the back of my mind. So there are few things I hate more than getting to the end of a day and feeling like I never got in my groove, like I never really knocked out something significant. A significant factor that impedes my productivity is multitasking when I shouldn’t. Fast Company makes a good point. Once I really get focused, I find I can get a lot accomplished in a short period of time. But given enough distractions and too little self-control, and my brain feels like a ping-pong ball in a clothes dryer. First email then a check of the news, then that other design portal that’s buried under around two dozen other similar bookmarks. Oh I come back to the immediately pressing item on the agenda, but with significantly impeded focus once again. So a lot of times doing one thing at a time really is the smartest.
What are other things you do to increase your productivity and concentration?
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Goal-setting. Maybe it goes without saying; but its true. Developing and writing down significant goals and genuinely planning to fulfill them can work wonders. Sometimes talking about the goals is fruitful for me, too – if I’m semi-accountable to someone because I told them what I’m planning to do, I’m more likely to follow through.
So true. “Lone rangers are dead strangers.”