5 tips to stay more focused | Focus tips for Christian entrepreneurs
Distractions are bigger than ever.
If there’s a task on my to-do list that seems daunting or that I do not particularly fancy, I suddenly have a great interest in my phone. My eyes slide to where it’s placed on my desk and my hand gets this twitch… I want to grab the phone and check if I don’t have new messages, new emails, or perhaps new podcast downloads.
Do you recognize that?
For you, it might not be your phone that’s a distraction but perhaps a couple of tabs in your browser or some house chores—if you work from home, like me.
There are a couple of ways to go about dealing with these types of distractions.
The hacks that I will be sharing are based on the book Redeeming Your Time by Jordan Raynor and The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer.
The good thing is, both books are based on Scripture!
Jesus was swamped
The reason for wanting fewer distractions, for me, comes from wanting to be more like Jesus.
Jesus was swamped, for sure. We don’t have to doubt that. But He always managed to spend His time in the right places, making the right impact. He always prioritized His time with God, no matter how many people were looking for Him, see Mark 1:38, which says:
35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. 36 Simon and his companions went to look for him, 37 and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”
38 Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” 39 So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.
We can see here that Jesus had an assignment: preach—in more villages than one. Apparently, there were a lot of people wanting His attention, but He knew His mission and could cut out the distraction. So He went on to travel throughout Galilee.
Practical tips for staying on track
Now, let’s get practical so we can also focus on our mission, just like Jesus, without getting sidetracked. Here are 5 tips.
1. Mute all notifications on your devices
Let’s start with this simple one. All those pings and buzzes are very distracting and also very unnecessary. If someone desperately needs you, they’ll call you.
Not only should you turn off sounds, also turn off those little numbers in the corner of your apps saying how many emails or WhatsApp messages you have. That’ll help when you still grabbed your phone but actually didn’t want to: it gives you another split second to change your mind and put it away.
2. Move your inbox app to another screen or delete it completely
I admit I’m kind of addicted to checking my email. And it makes sense why. Every time you see you have a new email you get a kick of dopamine.
The same is true for likes, messages, and the sort on social media, hence why all of this is so addicting. Dopamine is associated with pleasure and reward, and can create a sense of euphoria. No one is immune to this.
That being said, the best thing to do is to delete your inbox from your phone. However, I do get it if you use your phone sometimes to send out emails.
So, the best you can do is to move your email app to a different screen on your phone. Any screen except the first one will do. This method is called the “Clean Home Screen”.
This way, your email will be out of your sight and you’ll be less triggered to open it.
3. Delete your IG app
I can be short about this, just delete the ugly thing. It will save you a lot of temptation. And yes, I do understand Instagram is part of your social media strategy but then plan time to work on IG. Meaning: download the app, spend the time you need, post/like/comment, and delete it again.
Downloading the app every time you need it, seriously doesn’t take a lot of time, but this extra step makes you again think twice before spending time on IG instead of doing something more useful for God’s kingdom.
4. Put your phone in another room
I have to be honest, I don’t always do this. I actually hide my phone out of sight, which is already very helpful. Because if I don’t see it, it’s not there.
That’s the whole principle of this hack.
Place it somewhere you can’t see it and you won’t be tempted to touch it–or hear it if you didn’t turn your notifications off.
5. Close all tabs
Are you someone who has more than one tab open in their browser?
Yeah, I feel you.
They are there because they are reminders, right?
It could be buying a gift, sending an email, reading an article that you have been wanting to read. But… the thing is, they are extremely distracting.
They create so-called “open loops” in our brain: which are basically unfinished tasks taking up space in our brain and making us feel busy.
To avoid open loops in your brain, CLOSE all of your tabs and only have one open for what you’re working on.
Period.
If you need tabs to remind you about something or some task, you need a different system.
The easiest task management system is to create a to-do list. So close the tab, add the task to your to-do list, and focus on one tab with one task. This one seriously helped me a lot!
These five, are quite simple hacks. And there are many more. The ones I just shared focus specifically on technology, but there are distractions from other areas, such as your social life, tv, or internal noise.
But you got to start somewhere.
So, try implementing one hack at a time. Trying all of them at once might be too much of a stretch. Changing habits takes one tiny step at a time.
Be blessed in your work and may you use your time as efficiently as possible to be able to do much work for the Kingdom of God and the good of others.
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By the way, there’s a Bible Plan about managing time as Jesus did. If you’d like to read it and you use YouVersion as your Bible app, click on the link and save it to be read.
