How to get things done with a five-minute focus

As I sat trying to write earlier today, I found my attention drifting and my focus wandering. I was taking way too long to accomplish way too little.

To counter that, I downloaded a free digital timer and started setting it in five-minute increments. My intent was to focus on writing in five-minute chunks and not let myself do anything else but the task at hand during those five minutes.

I've been finding it a really effective way to reign in my entropic focus. Every time I wanted to wander over and check my e-mail, or read Twitter, or go to the kitchen to get something to nibble on, or...well, you get the idea, I checked myself and stayed on task. Because I had committed to focusing only on what I was writing for that five minutes, I stayed with it.

What made this so effective for me was that I always knew I was only a couple minutes from being able to take a break if I really wanted to. It removed the impulsive, spur-of-the-moment scatteredness and put boundaries around when my attention could wander. At the same time, it didn't make the breaks so few and far between that my mind rebelled.

The discipline involved in saying, "I won't look at Twitter until I write for another three minutes is significantly less than, "I won't let my attention wander until I've written for an hour." 

And often, the five minutes would be up before I knew it because I had fallen into a rhythm with what I was doing. I would take a couple seconds to reset the timer to five minutes, and be off to the races again.

How about you? How do you stay focused and productive?

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by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

Comments

[Lewis, AKA Seattle Interview Coach]

I love the timer idea. I'd definitely give it a try.

I've found that to using a to-do list keeps me on track. I take a few minutes to brainstorm a list of 6-8 items I'd like to achieve in the next 2-3 hours, and I don't stop until it's done. I can easily track my progress, and once I finish all of the tasks, I get satisfaction from accomplishing the goal.