Do you wish that you could maintain focus on a task that you have to do for long periods?
In this post, I share one of the techniques that I have learned in order to be able to be productive for longer. The advantage of being more productive? You finish earlier!
As part of my job, I am often faced with marking piles of assignments or examination papers. These papers, by their very nature, are often very similar to each other, and it is easy to ‘drift off’ while reading them. This is frustrating as it means that I have to go back and re-read the paper in order to give an accurate grade and appropriate written feedback.
The following tip is a proven strategy I use to keep my mind on what I am doing:
When you sit down to do a lot of repetitive work that requires concentration, have a blank pad of paper and a pen nearby. When you find yourself drifting off and thinking about something else other than what you are reading, stop, jot down the thought, put the pen down and go back to your reading. The secret is to know that you will review the list later (when you have more time) and anything that is still important on the list you can then put into action if you need to. Becasue you have jotted down the thought (captured it) your mind can relax about it and it doesn’t continue to drift off as you develop the thought. You can always come back to it later when you have more time (and mental space) to think about it.
When you first begin doing this, don’t fret if you find yourself stoppping frequently and jotting random thoughts down; just get back to what you are doing immediately. Over time, you will find that the length of time that you can concentrate on the task at hand increases.
I use a similar technique when I am out and about and don’t have a pen and paper handy – I use Twitter. When I have a thought, and it threatens to distract me from what I am doing at the moment, I send a Tweet via my mobile phone or over a wireless network via laptop. The thought gets captured and recorded, and I can get back to the task at hand knowing that I can review my Twitter account any time that I want.
Below is a recent list of my Tweets (a fair proportion of them are in relation to some research that I am doing – forgive the spelling, many of them were created on the run):
jasondowns Simplicity is best. 03:58 PM March 17, 2008 from web
jasondowns Is strategic thinking just a power issue? Getting the dominant frame accepted cements your power in the organisation.02:59 PM March 15, 2008 from web
jasondowns .. a bit, it’s hopless, everyone has thought everything through, Oh well. 01:58 PM March 15, 2008 from web
jasondowns Disbeleif, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. i don’t beleive the theroy, I’m angray and thik it’s wrong, mayeb I can change it .. 01:57 PM March 15, 2008 from web
jasondowns I wonder if there are similar stages of the five stages of grief when you are lokoing at researching an area of theory. 01:56 PM March 15, 2008 from web
jasondowns I think strategically, therefore, I am. (Find the source of the original quote) 11:50 AM March 14, 2008 from txt
jasondowns You become a strategic thinker when someone tells you that you are, or you assume your own agency. 11:37 AM March 14, 2008 from txt
jasondowns We have to think differently about power in 2.0 world. Meritocracy? Who gets heard gets power. 05:23 PM March 13, 2008from txt
jasondowns Melbourne Rocks! What a great autom day. 10:04 AM March 13, 2008 from txt
jasondowns Mobile tweet. 09:03 AM March 13, 2008 from txt
jasondowns Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design by John Creswell. 01:26 PM January 22, 2008 from web
jasondowns …and to envision potential futures significantly different from the present. 09:25 AM January 18, 2008 from web
jasondowns ….to discover novel, imaginative strategies which can re-write the rules of the competitive game…. 09:24 AM January 18, 2008 from web
jasondowns strategic thinking is a distinctive management activity whose purpose is: 09:23 AM January 18, 2008 from web
jasondowns Ask Carlene: websites, blogs etc as academic sources in FRED? Valid? 10:03 AM January 17, 2008 from web
jasondowns What about a taging system that is democratic and evolves as people review the data? Tags are voted for. Themes emerge. ThinkMap again? 12:09 PM January 16, 2008 from web
jasondowns “Themes as Tags”? Coding can become more active. Using uber-themes just locks me into other people’s thinking.12:08 PM January 16, 2008 from web
jasondowns The more I think about it, the more I think I am going to reject the idea of knowledge and thinking as being linear. 11:05 AM January 16, 2008 from web
jasondowns Themes don’t emerge from the data – they reside in our head. It’s our interpretation of the data through our inner lense that shows themes. 11:33 AM January 14, 2008 from web
jasondowns Wonders if ThinkMap might be a useful way to present my thesis. (FRED) 05:42 PM January 11, 2008 from web
What tips do you have for maintaing your focus? I’d love it if you shared them…
Jason.
(The image used in this post is from Flickr; it can be found here)
