5 Proven Ways To Improve Your Focus With Task Management

Stay out of the overwhelm danger zone. It’s a lot easier than you think once you get organized.

You know that feeling you get at the end of the day when you’ve done everything you set out to do? Imagine if you had that feeling every single day. Or, at least, knowing you did as much as you could possibly do (because let’s be real, life happens!). The problem with achieving that daily goal is that once you start to fall behind on your task list, it just gets bigger and more overwhelming every time you open it. So how do you nip that escalation in the bud before you enter the danger zone? It’s actually a lot easier than you think once you get organized.

Identify Your Most Important Tasks (MITs)

If you knew you could only accomplish 5 tasks in your day, what would they be? Those are your most important tasks. We’re talking about the time-sensitive tasks that need to be completed ASAP or they’ll stop you from moving forward (or stop someone else moving forward with their work). The most urgent thing on your list is always going to be at the back of your mind until it’s done, so start with that. Once it’s completed and off your plate, you’ll be extra motivated to push through the rest of the day.

Bite-Size Your Tasks

We often end up losing focus on a task because it’s just too overwhelming to do all at once. The way to deal with this is to break your tasks up into bite-sized chunks that are easier to manage. This means you get the buzz of ticking off each actionable task as you work through your checklist to keep you motivated along the way. When you set up a Card in Buckets to manage your tasks, you can also add colored labels to differentiate them by urgency or category and this can be super helpful when you’re creating Checklist items within an overall task.

Shallow Work vs Deep Work: Know The Difference

In his book “Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World”, bestselling author Cal Newport laments the lack of effort we put into performing deep work on a daily basis as this is necessary in order to achieve true focus. He worries that if we spend too much time stuck in shallow work that our ability to focus on deep work will diminish. The professor describes deep work as:

“professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate.”

To summarize, this work is cognitively challenging and requires a lot of concentration.

Analyzing and developing a strategy would be an example of deep work whereas “shallow” work involves items such as checking emails and messaging on Slack. The author/science professor describes shallow work as “non-cognitively demanding, logistical-style tasks, often performed while distracted”. This is routine work that can often be performed whilst distracted and doesn’t always hold any groundbreaking value.

Boost Morale & Motivation With Gamification

One of the best ways to boost motivation at work is to set goals for yourself, and utilizing Gamification to do so makes it a lot more fun. In a survey by TalentLMS, 89% of respondents using gamification felt that it made them more productive at work, and 88% were happier at work as a result.

Gamification itself is defined as “the process of adding games or game-like elements to something (such as a task) so as to encourage participation”. This is something we have incorporated into the Buckets project management system to improve the daily productivity of our users by allowing them to keep score of their achievements and engage in friendly competition with co-workers to achieve their goals and “level up”

Avoid Decision Fatigue

Another item that Newport refers to is the impact of decision fatigue on our ability to focus throughout the day and successfully switch into deep work mode when needed. You likely recognize the feeling of procrastination that sets in when you’re just not sure where to start or what to do next, and this is exactly what you need to avoid. The good news is, it’s easy to do so. All you need is a routine. By systemizing your daily tasks (not just your work tasks) you can erase any mental friction that might interfere with your flow throughout the day and stop you from moving on to the next task at hand.

So in this regard, the key to your project management is to plan ahead in all aspects of your life and really get that blended work/life balance in sync. When using Buckets, this means setting up various Projects to manage both your work and personal life and add checklists of tasks and deadlines to keep you on autopilot and ahead of the game at all times.

Identify & Utilize Your Peak Productivity Times

Spend a week analyzing your workflow to see when you’re working at your best and then organize your schedule around these slots of time. Are you a morning person or does your productivity kick in afternoon? Do you get a regular “slump” at a specific time daily and can you figure out why? Your productivity peaks will always go up and down at different periods of your life but if you can determine when you’re generally most productive then it will go a long way towards helping you to improve your focus.

If your natural productivity rhythm doesn’t seem to line up well with your working hours, don’t worry — all is not lost — you can work around it. For example, if mornings aren’t your best focus period then dedicate that time to shallow tasks and save the deep work for later in the day.

Most Importantly: Just Start

These tips will definitely help you to improve your focus but remember the most important thing to do is just get started, and you can do that right now by creating a system that is customized to how you work so that you have everything you need at your disposal to get the job done. Create that system right now over on your Buckets account, start implementing these tips, and let us know how you get on!

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