How To Focus

Date

Time at Desk [Goal: get in as early as possible since morning hours are most productive for me. Tracking this by writing it down helps give a tiny surge of motivation each morning]

Day Goals [These are intended as a FEW overarching goals (lets say, 2-3 goals) for what would make the day successful to you. It helps immediately scope the day's goals. A CRITICAL step: after you write these down, think: "If at the end of the day, I accomplish these 3 things, will I feel good about today?" If that thought leaves you feeling like your day goals are too daunting or too insufficient, then revise them before actually starting the day. Repeat until you feel comfortable with day goals.]

Morning Thoughts [I was finding that I'd come in with a set of emotionally charged thoughts that would then distract me throughout the day. Taking a few minutes to write down whatever happens to be on my mind, whatever I happen to be feeling, really helps to clear it, or at least postpone the thoughts for when I actually want to make time to process them.]

ToDo List [This ToDo list, at least for me, is NOT a comprehensive list of all work items. Instead, it contains things like chores, meetings, social things, smaller menial tasks, email checking, etc. The idea is to give myself less mental credit for a menial task and more credit for working towards my day goals, while still recognizing the need to get the menial tasks done]

Retrospective: [How did I actually use my time? Every couple of hours I update this list with where my time actually went. It's been SUPER interesting in particular to see how what sometimes might feel like a 'quick afternoon break' to me was actually more like a 2 hour break or something. Has been very revealing and sometimes helps me with efficiency]

FOCUS SESSIONS [These things are MAGICAL, at least for me. My big realization is that previously, I'd reason that e.g. sending a quick text message takes all of 20 seconds and is no big deal. But in reality, I was simply not creating the sort of totally focused, absolutely uninterrupted time I needed to get things done for real. So, focus sessions are 1-2 hour periods (set the time just before you begin one) where ALL SOCIAL MEDIA GOES OFF. completely. not even one exception. No text messaging. No facebook. No reddit. Ideally no email. for 1-2 hours. Write down your work goal for the focus session. When I started using focus sessions I found them mind clearing and liberating. When the focus session is over, you are again free to kick back and catch up on texts. I try to do anywhere from 3-6 of these a day, and personally find that about 1.5 hours is a good length of time. During focus sessions, I listen to focus music such as Alpha Waves in my case, but whatever music works for you is fine. I find it's good to have an auditory trigger that you gradually grow to associate with focusing. If I am finding myself tempted to cheat, I remind myself that I am specifically trying to prove that I have self-trust: If I say I am going to focus for 1.5 hours, I will. Self-trust works both ways though - If I say I'm going to have fun for an hour, I should have stress-free fun]

[edit] one more note on focus sessions - you don't necessarily need to work during the full focus session. If I need a pause, I find that staring out the window for a little while is a good quick rest that does not require a context shift.
Hope these techniques I've developed to address my own productivity issues will help some other people too! Would be curious which parts of this work for other people as well.