How to Have a Good Day: Harness the Power of Behavioral Science to Transform Your Working Life pdfdrive com

Store stray thoughts in a “parking lot.”
Even when you’re doing your best
to focus on one task, you may find that other thoughts pop into your mind as
you’re working, and some of them are too valuable to lose. Rather than using

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up mental space trying to hold on to these stray sparks, or being drawn into
exploring them, get into the habit of immediately recording them (maybe on a
sticky note or in a voice memo) so that you know you can come back to them
when the time is right.
Build up your stamina.
Most of us are now unused to focusing our attention
on one thing at a time, so it can feel hard at first. If that’s true for you, start
with just five minutes of undistracted time. Then acknowledge what you were
able to get done in that time, and make sure to pat yourself on the back—
perhaps by keeping a tally of the total amount of time you’ve managed to
spend offline today. It’s important to give yourself a small reward like this,
because you need to compete with the minor thrill your brain gets from the
constant stimulation of being online. Over time, gradually extend the length
of your focused sessions until you’re able to concentrate for longer without
feeling antsy.
Time yourself.
When you’re working on an important task, decide how long
you want to spend properly focused on it. Then set a timer that counts down
that number of minutes. It gives you a physical point of focus and allows you
a burst of satisfaction when the timer runs down to zero and bleeps
approvingly at you.
Anthony now gives himself different lengths of time for different types of
tasks. “I read some research that said ninety minutes was optimal for focused,
deep thought. So when I’m doing some harder thinking I set a timer to count
down from ninety, and people can see that I’m in the middle of something. They
can interrupt if they have to, but they know what it means.” He says that
sometimes he peters out after sixty-five or seventy minutes, “but that’s okay,
I’ve learned not to worry about that.” For less weighty work, he prefers twenty-
five-minute segments. “Whatever length of time you choose, I find the timer
makes you feel more focused once you start, because it reminds you that it’s not
going to stretch forever.”