How to be More Focused at Work

It can be hard to be focused at work, especially when you're buried under paperwork, constantly interrupted, and endlessly pulled into meetings - not to mention you might be doing more than just your job. You may have inherited a job or two from others who have left the organization.

There's just too much to do to waste time by being unfocused.

Let's fix this. . . because the is good news is that you can enjoy greater success in your job (and career) by being more focused.

This article will be helpful to you if:

• You're constantly running around putting out fires
• Are busy but never get anything done, or make an impact
• Have no time or energy to make progress on long term goals
• Have trouble delegating or saying no

You've heard of "bigger fish to fry,"

which means you've got more important things to deal with.

In reality though, it can be hard to decipher which fish is the biggest, especially when you have a lot of fish on your plate. ?? ?? ??

Many productivity hacks skip right over this part. They tell you to put in the big rocks first.

But which are the big rocks? What tasks are the priority? How do you figure that out?

The Mere-Urgency Effect

A 2018 study in the Journal of Consumer Research found across 5 separate experiments that we are bad at prioritizing. The Mere-Urgency Effect shows that when faced with tasks of mixed urgency and importance, we decide to work on time-sensitive tasks instead of tasks that are less urgent even when the less urgent task offers greater rewards.

This cognitive bias means that it can be bad for your productivity to just rely on instinct when deciding what to work on.

Instead, you need a method. . .

Read the rest of this article to get:

• Two methods to use together to boost productivity and focus
• Jobs you can do if you can't sit still at your desk
• Productivity stats that will probably shock you
• A work horror story ??

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I'm Jess Sweet, career coach, therapist, and owner of Wishingwell Coaching. Every week, I bring you expert career tips, mindset and therapy-based tools, inspiration and other things that will improve your career in my weekly newsletter. Join us!