Staying Focused

I just got back form vacation on the 9th. I was able to do pretty good keeping my overall fitness and kept my food consumption in check most of the time. I was also surprised at how easy it was to maintain my intermittent fasting routine. Everyone got up later so I would have some coffee, do my workout (or not) and then hang out on the deck and wait till the kids would wake up and either take them down to the beach or to the south end of the island to fish.

One of the best thing about being on a laid back vacation at the the beach is that I can practice focusing on the task at hand. There's no pressure about getting the task I'm doing complete so I can move to the next thing that needs to be done. I just focus on what I'm doing and do the next thing when I done. It's ironic that no matter how much you have to do, worrying about the other things you have to do doesn't get anything done faster. However, it does cause you to make more mistakes.

One of the things I like about kids is that they are not tied to a time schedule. They focus on the things they are doing and then move on to the next thing. They don't use phrases like it's time to eat or it's time to go to bed. Instead they say I'm hungry or I'm tired.

I've found that this week at work I have been able to focus more clearly on what I doing by being mindful of of my actions. Here are some things that have helped:

• Keeping a list of the remaining things I need to do helps me focus on what I'm doing.
• Don't check email or answer phone calls except at certain times of the day.
• With big assignments, start the assignment way ahead of the deadline and work on it some every day or every other day or at least once a week depending on the time before the deadline . It could only be for 5-10 minutes or just to read though the old work.
• Organize your desk each day before you leave. Arriving to an organized desk each day allows you to start with an uncluttered mind.

The trick will be to remain vigilant.

Staying Focused = More Productivity = Less Stress