4 Steps to Keep Focused: My personal experience and No BS

Have you ever read the articles like how to keep focused while working? Most of them address that you should allocate your time productively, choose lyric-free music, train your mind, answer your internal question, and the hilarious one, eat some brain food...After you've been reading them, did you really know how to stay focused? I mean their logic and rationale are not wrong but they do not actually tell you how. By asking the question like what I need and what is my goal to seek for the reason of being focused is unlikely to tell our brain what exactly to do next. I personally have tried different kind of methods of keeping focused and productive and so far I found four ways that are most useful and work well for me.

• Clear all the distractions:

We live in a world where everything is approachable and attractive. The laziness and curiosity are determined by our human nature, so we are so easy to get distracted by massive information as well as procrastinated by the self-comfort of " not hurt to do it tomorrow", which is not wrong and so natural that we are not even aware of. The thing is that very time we encounter other's business we shall ask ourselves that DO I REALLY NEED TO KNOW THAT? Like the post of people getting married or having a great meal kind of thing on Facebook, do you really need to know it if you don't have access to your Facebook? What is the difference between not-knowing and knowing to your life? I mean if somebody really cares about you, they will text or meet you in person. To conclude, we do not necessarily need the junk information on any social media.

But how to get rid of that? Most of the suggestions are like not checking it frequently or training your brain. My method is just to block every news feed on my Facebook. If you are using Chrome, the extension called News Feed Eradicator for Facebook  is a really really good helper regarding getting rid of distractions. It's easy to install and the purpose serves well by showing a quote and hiding the news feed. You can still search people if you want to but now you literally do not have to know other people's life and focus on yours.

My FB screenshot

Unhealthy snack is anther problem that cause our distraction. I used to eat snacks while studying or reading. Not only gaining weight but also I found myself getting more distracted and depressed for some reasons. My normal meals were replaced by bags of snacks...I wouldn't say that keeping away from all the snacks because our goal is to stay focused and not dieting. However, when you are working, keep the snacks to where you are not able to see it. You'll become more focused and healthier.

• Develop a Hobby:

Instead of passively searching for what do I want, try to create a hobby that could accompany you when you feel either stressed or happy. It worked really well for me to paint and jog. The time flies when I draw and paint. The minimum hour of each time I draw is 2-3 hours. I never will be keeping my hands on anything this long except for the thing I love. Friends of mine, by being focused, some cook, some rock climb and some throw knives. Somebody would say not to have a stupid hobby, why not? Just enjoy life and make it interesting!

• Post-it:

I'm not going to advertise these little stickers but have to admit they changed my life. I used to set reminder on my phone and even though the alarm is on, I still cannot complete all of them on time. However by having a Post-it, I only set 3-5 the most important things I have to complete today because the sticker is not big enough to let me write down so much. After achieve one, just cross it. My life has become a lot more efficient than old days. You can carry it anywhere and stick it on anything. You won't have a gap between after you've done the last thing and before you don't know what to do next. You'll immediately be aware of the important things and the chance of procrastination has been reduced as there is no gray area to get distracted. You know what you want to do. Furthermore, if you like to develop a timeline of your week or month instead of just planning on each day. Go ahead, schedule and timesheet will never hurt.

• Surrounded by people with same goals:

I've been giving you some good advice so far and it's time for you to choose. To quote from one of my fav mentor, Anthony Robbins, people's lives are the direct reflection of the expectations of their peer group. Your life experience will never far exceed the expectations of your peers, because to stay connected to them there is an unconscious contract that says we’re going to be within this range of each other. Now, on the other hand, if for some reason your friends have a higher expectation for life than you do, just to stay on the team you’ve got to raise your standard. And that's the beauty of life. So by choosing an awesome life, you need to choose a group of awesome friends who always stand by you, bring positive attitudes, speak the truth and never leave you. After you've surrounded by such awesome friends and they've motivated you, it's really hard to not to keep focused and achieve your objectives or goals.

I hope all my personal advice would help you for certain points and let's be focused!