Productivity Hacks for Busy Practitioners
Are you quickly losing focus when doing your work or feeling like it takes forever to get anything done? It might seem obvious, but distractions play a key role in blocking your productivity. The three hacks included here will help you ditch these distractions and find your groove to work smarter not harder.
Productivity can be a challenge for many people for a variety of reasons. One of the biggest reasons is simply having too many distractions around when working. This is an issue because once distracted it takes time to regain focus and momentum in your work.
According to HubSpot, once distracted an employee takes an average of 30 minutes to regain working focus. When distracted by using a cell phone it can take up to an hour to get back to working efficiently. By keeping the environment peaceful and eliminating distractions like cell phones, anyone can learn how to increase their productivity.
As a busy practitioner, there are many areas of work that demand high levels of focus. It is normal to lose focus on minor tasks, but maintaining focus when working on serious matters is critical. In situations where you find it hard to retain focus and productivity, there are hacks that can help. Here we have outlined 3 simple hacks that can help you be more productive and increase your focus.
3 Simple Productivity Hacks
1. Identify your “deep work”
Despite what many try to claim, multitasking is not effective and even hinders your productivity. According to Dr. Kubu from Cleveland Clinic, the more we multitask, the less we accomplish any task at hand. Essentially when you try to multitask you are switching from one task to another. However, what you may not realize is that it takes time for your brain to reset to each new switch. This ultimately takes up more time than it would to focus on one task at a time and can even decrease the quality of your work.
Now that you know that multitasking is not effective the next step is identifying what your “deep work” is. Deep work is the act of purposefully immersing yourself completely in a task that requires complete brainpower without any interruption. According to a Georgetown University professor, if you can master the practice of deep work, you will end up having better results in a shorter time frame. Essentially it becomes easier to get high-quality work done in less time when you practice deep work. Over time you will hone in the skills needed to spend hours dedicated to concentrating on a single task.
2. Practice the Pomodoro technique
Don’t worry if you have not heard of the Pomodoro technique yet. While not widely known yet, this practice is sure to help your business endeavors. It was invented by entrepreneur Francesco Cirillo, and is designed to help you stay focused on your work and improve your attention span. This method is crafted for people who struggle when trying to devote hours to a singular task, and works by organizing the entire day into manageable chucks of tasks. One such type of organization could be where you work for 25 minutes on a task, take a five-minute break, and then go back to it for 25 minutes. This concept helps by giving you multiple short endpoint goals instead of one big overall goal to accomplish. By breaking down the work into these chunks you will be able to stay focused and productive during your work times.
3. Put your phone away
Without a doubt, cell phones are one of the most consistent and pervasive distractions faced each day. A single notification has the ability to hinder productivity and can quickly cause hours of work to be lost. However, while there are some apps that become very addicting, there are also apps that function as productivity tools. They can essentially shut down your phone or serve as timed reminders to stop a break and get back to work to help prevent endless social media scrolling. An alternative option is to simply put the phone away so that notifications do not distract you. By doing this, you can increase your focus and be more productive when working to finish the task at hand.
Overall, there are many ways to be productive and increase your ability to focus on the tasks at hand. The three simple productivity hacks covered here can help you once you understand the importance of focus and how your determination to stay focused is important in accomplishing your task. By applying each of these you will learn new ways to be successful in your practice and beyond.
Streamsoft is a digital marketing agency that focuses on attending to the needs of medical practitioners by helping streamline various business operations to deliver the best patient experience. Consult now with Streamsoft and see how they will help your practice continue to grow.