Focus and motivation

Hi James,

great question and glad to offer my own tips. I have a job and subsequent interested that require a lot of time and attention from me. I’ve often found myself working for 12hrs straight or more at a time (not reccomended btw). 

here are a few things I swear by and my peers have used also. 

1. Get plenty of sleep the day before, trying to focus when tired is impossible and you take longer completing the most basic of tasks. 

2. Exercise - Do some form of working out. Unlike the first point if your body is recovering from a workout your mind is actually more focused and sharper and helps you sleep better. So a win win. (I’ve recently stopped working out for a few months and its destroyed my productivity)

3. Specify your tasks. Even if whatever you do is not complicate, list out the key things you need to do. This could be key milestones or more specific. 

4. if you can get into a hyper focused state then you won’t likely get bored but if you find you can’t ‘continue’ or getting stuck. Then it means you need to take a break and switch off from your raks for a bit to let your mind refocus. Taking a walk or doing another unrelated task is great for this. 

5. get feedback from others who are expert at what you are doing or even a trusted voice. This will keep you on the right track. 

6. Some people talk about background noise, listening to music, podcasts, or silence. I like them all and use them when I feel. So days I will work in silence, others it will be a podcast. As long as I’m in control of what I listen to I’m good. Even cracking open a window to let in some background noise is handy. 

7. Control your environment. If I’m in a space that is too noisy, busy or distracting I really use momentum. As much as you can control your space. 

8. eat foods that are clean and not going to make your sluggish. I struggle with this but I know once I master this I will feel like a superhero. 

9. deadlines - everything goes out the window if you have a deadline. Worth considering but can become unhealthy for you if you can’t do all the above at the same time. 

10. take breaks. Whether its a tea break, or a week off or more. You NEED this to let your mind reset. There is nothing living in the world that doesn’t need to rest. 

11. enjoy what you are doing, if there are things in your project that you don’t enjoy, try and complete them as quick as possible to get back to the tasks you do enjoy. 

12. keep a diary 

13. drink 8-10 glasses of water a day

14. Where possible complete the biggest most annoying and time consuming task first  then the rest of the day will be easier  

15. Trust yourself. You would’nt be doing the project if you didn’t think you were capable. 

16. take pride in your work and keep your ego in check. 

17. Enjoy all of your hard work once its done. 

thats all I have for now. 

hope some of these help

Hi James,

great question and glad to offer my own tips. I have a job and subsequent interested that require a lot of time and attention from me. I’ve often found myself working for 12hrs straight or more at a time (not reccomended btw). 

here are a few things I swear by and my peers have used also. 

1. Get plenty of sleep the day before, trying to focus when tired is impossible and you take longer completing the most basic of tasks. 

2. Exercise - Do some form of working out. Unlike the first point if your body is recovering from a workout your mind is actually more focused and sharper and helps you sleep better. So a win win. (I’ve recently stopped working out for a few months and its destroyed my productivity)

3. Specify your tasks. Even if whatever you do is not complicate, list out the key things you need to do. This could be key milestones or more specific. 

4. if you can get into a hyper focused state then you won’t likely get bored but if you find you can’t ‘continue’ or getting stuck. Then it means you need to take a break and switch off from your raks for a bit to let your mind refocus. Taking a walk or doing another unrelated task is great for this. 

5. get feedback from others who are expert at what you are doing or even a trusted voice. This will keep you on the right track. 

6. Some people talk about background noise, listening to music, podcasts, or silence. I like them all and use them when I feel. So days I will work in silence, others it will be a podcast. As long as I’m in control of what I listen to I’m good. Even cracking open a window to let in some background noise is handy. 

7. Control your environment. If I’m in a space that is too noisy, busy or distracting I really use momentum. As much as you can control your space. 

8. eat foods that are clean and not going to make your sluggish. I struggle with this but I know once I master this I will feel like a superhero. 

9. deadlines - everything goes out the window if you have a deadline. Worth considering but can become unhealthy for you if you can’t do all the above at the same time. 

10. take breaks. Whether its a tea break, or a week off or more. You NEED this to let your mind reset. There is nothing living in the world that doesn’t need to rest. 

11. enjoy what you are doing, if there are things in your project that you don’t enjoy, try and complete them as quick as possible to get back to the tasks you do enjoy. 

12. keep a diary 

13. drink 8-10 glasses of water a day

14. Where possible complete the biggest most annoying and time consuming task first  then the rest of the day will be easier  

15. Trust yourself. You would’nt be doing the project if you didn’t think you were capable. 

16. take pride in your work and keep your ego in check. 

17. Enjoy all of your hard work once its done. 

thats all I have for now. 

hope some of these help

Many thanks Tron!