Focus, focus, focus

In my last post, I talked about letting go of distractions and trusting that the information and people you need will find you.

Clearing the way

But what about the things that are left? Online, offline, all those small and large tasks we all need to do in order to really blossom and be present in our own lives. You can’t relax and be creative when you haven’t done your tax returns. (I speak from experience…) How do we clear those necessary tasks out of the way so our lives can flourish?

NB: if you’re one of those naturally organised, disciplined, non-procrastinating types that I envy with every fibre of my being, you can stop reading now. Go away and do something fun.

Productivity guru David Allen has it right when he advises getting all those tasks, ideas and options out of your head and into a trusted system which will remind you when you need to be reminded. Otherwise your brain will keep prompting about whether you paid the milkman or ordered the theatre tickets. I really recommend his book Getting Things Done as a starting point from which to adopt/adapt what you need.

Focus, focus, focus

Image by Klearchos

Women especially are supposed to be good at multi-tasking, but what does it really mean? I think men usually have a better take on this and I touched on the evils of multi-tasking way back when in this post. Don’t multi-task. Don’t split your focus. Do one thing at a time, do it mindfully, finish it, put it aside and move on to the next.

Here are a few specifics:

Don’t let email run your life

I deal with well over 100 emails a day using the following tips:

• Use an email program (Gmail, Outlook) in which you can create folders and rules for incoming email. For example, in my Gmail account I have all Twitter and Tumblr messages bypass my in-box straight into designated folders, which I look at once a week.
• Try and deal with email at designated regular times, don’t keep it open all the time.
• If you are already completely overwhelmed by a backlog of email to be dealt with, it really helps psychologically to get it out of your in-box. If you’re brave, select all those unanswered emails and press the delete button. If it’s something really important, they’ll get back to you. Otherwise create a folder called “to sort” and put all those emails in it. You still might not get round to dealing with them, but at least they’re available if you want them.
• There, now you have a beautiful, virginal in-box which you can keep up-to-date with. You’ll actually be able to enjoy responding to friends’ emails rather than fret about all the others.

There are some great resources out there on dealing with email and you can find some of them here.

Close that browser

Oh this is such a temptation for me. The insistent whispering invitation of endless internet goodies. It really helps to close your internet browser whenever you’re doing a chunk of work, whether it’s writing a report, building a spreadsheet or invoicing your clients (a task I hate,  although I don’t hate the money).

I recently started writing all my blog posts in Microsoft Notepad then copying and pasting the finished post into my blog. Then and only then do I decide what photographs to use and what to link to. It’s saved me hours of distraction and left me free to be creatively distracted when I want to be (more on that in the next post).

A warning: I’m sure you know this but don’t ever write your blog posts in Word. It does truly bizarre things to formatting when transferred to WordPress and other blog platforms. You need a plain text editor like Notepad.

Your kitchen timer is your friend

Image by hickr

Even though I’ve cut back on a lot of unnecessary complications, there are still tasks I hate but accept I have to do (did I mention tax returns?). I set the timer to 20 minutes and do whatever it is for that long. It really helps. You may find that once you’ve started, you’ll want to carry on after the 20 minutes is up.

I also use the timer for housework, or I tell myself I’ll do one task, such as cleaning out the fridge.

Losing the overwhelm

All these tricks and more will help you feel less overwhelmed and more able to enjoy what you really want to do. I’m not big on delayed gratification but when I do get the chores out of the way it really does feel so much better.

Wishing and dreaming

But tasks are not all there is to life, thank goodness. Dealing with chores is just a way to clear the decks for living rich and deep. Don’t lose sight of the wishes and dreams that pop into your head at odd hours, and don’t put them off. There are ways to have your cake and eat it, and they are the subject of my next post in a couple of days.

Meanwhile, my examples above are office and internet based because that’s what I know. I’d love to hear any tips you have on dealing with the chores.

Main image by Thomas Shahan

Elsewhere:

Well we were talking about email, so here’s a bonus about it from the great Seth Godin. And just in case you don’t believe me about distractions and being organised, read 6 Ways to Waste Your Time as a Writer.