7 Ways to Get More Work Done

SEVEN WAYS TO GET MORE WORK DONE When you think about the times you achieved full concentration on any type of job, you will remember that the work was easier, you were surprised at how much you accomplished, and the quality of the work was high. The problem is how to achieve this level of concentration, and how to reach it on a regular basis. Here's some ideas you can use to more fully develop this trait. 1. The first is obvious - practice concentrating. The more it becomes a habit, the less brain activity is necessary. Being able to focus becomes less difficult. Also, you will find that as you practice in different areas of your life, skills transfer from one task to another more easily. 2. Make a dull job more interesting by inventing challenges for yourself. Setting time or quality goals takes out some of the drudgery. Consider rewarding yourself when you're done with it. Make it the first thing you do just to get it over with rather than dreading it all day. 3. If you think about how you would provide instruction to someone who had not done the task before you may just discover some interesting details in the job. Or, you might find time wasting elements you've inserted because you weren't paying enough attention to it. Even if it's something you don't like doing, realize that you are good at it and appreciate your abilities. 4. Develop a ritual that makes it easier to devote undivided attention to the work ahead. Habitual behavior helps to calibrate the mind to a state of concentration. Perhaps it's arranging your desk or tool area. Maybe it's organizing your to-do list. Or you may call upon an image that gives you strength and a feeling of being centered and ready to take on whatever comes your way that day. 5. Take a break if you start feeling stressful. Once you are distracted by emotion it's that much harder to give your full attention to the present task. It's best if you don't lose what concentration you've built up to that moment by talking to others. Instead take some deep breaths, gaze out the window, take a short walk, or listen to instrumental music for a few minutes. Once you finish the job, then take a longer break to relax before moving on to the next item you need to accomplish. 6. Do your best to block out everything else. Obviously, this is much easier said than done. Becoming preoccupied with what will happen when you finish this project tends to make your thoughts more scattered. You need to be focused on the present moment. Your thinking must be that right now, this is the most important project to you. It should be the only thing in your consciousness while working on it. 7. Believe that you are capable of attaining whatever the end goal is. How many of you played the card game of Concentration where you had to match the cards as they were flipped over? You paid attention to the location of cards, you developed a ritual for remembering where certain cards were, you didn't leave the game until it was finished, you told yourself and/or your partner that you were going to win, and you were elated (or at the least quite satisfied) when you ended up with lots of matched pairs. Here's to improved concentration in whatever you do whether it be work oriented, scholastic, social, sports, or anything else.