- “Start imagining a different way to work and live. Here’s how it might look for you:
- Although you work in an open office, you’re less affected by the noise and interruptions and can stay deeply engaged in your work. You work faster, do better work, and enjoy your work more.
- You take opportunities to rest your mind and inject moments of calm into your day. This makes you feel more creative and inspired, and you generate more insights and solutions.
- You no longer feel controlled by your devices.
- You work less and have more leisure time.
- You give your full attention to your friends, family, hobbies, and recreation. People appreciate how present you are with them. As a result, you feel less burned out and more motivated and inspired when you’re back at work.
- You’re more engaged in the moments in your life and find them richer and more satisfying.
- You feel more in control and less stressed and impatient.”
- ““My experience is what I agree to attend to.” In other words, your attention determines the experiences you have, and when looking back on your life, it’s easy to see that the experiences you have determine the life you live. Therefore, you must control your attention to control your life. Since productivity is about directing your activities to the things that are important to you, attention management is the logical path to get you there””
- “Since flow is a brain state, not a behavior, you can’t enter a flow state at will. But what you can do is create an ideal environment. Focus is required, and it takes effort to stay focused in part because the constant distractions that fill our lives make us impatient. We’re so used to distractions that we get antsy when we don’t have them! When we need to focus and think deeply—for example, on a high-impact work project or important conversation—we don’t really want to, and we’re not very good at it.”
- “So in order to focus, we must choose to eliminate distractions. Eliminating distractions and engaging your focus are two components required for flow—think of them like a jump start. If you would like to achieve a flow state more often, engage your focus in an environment intentionally free from distraction more often. Entering flow state more often improves your odds of being both more productive and happier.”
- “When we’re impatient, it’s hard to stay present. Mindfulness is a conscious mental state of recognizing the present moment, being aware of the sensations in your body, and acknowledging your thoughts and feelings. Cultivating mindfulness can mean regularly meditating or simply getting in the habit of centering yourself in the present moment. Practicing mindfulness offers a range of benefits and is a popular way to improve productivity and enhance health.”
- “Set a timer for short stretches of time, even just ten minutes. During this time, eliminate all distractions by controlling your environment and your technology. Pick an activity, close out everything else, start the timer, and single-task. Once the time is up, you can take a break or continue working if you’re on a roll. Following the break, reset the timer and start the process over. At first, even ten minutes may seem like an eternity, but over time, it will become much more comfortable, and you can increase the stretch of time to fifteen, twenty, thirty minutes and more. Following this practice will help you build up to longer and longer periods of uninterrupted work.
- Give yourself some quick pockets of quiet time. See if you can sit relatively still, without speaking, without any devices, and without napping—just letting your mind wander or absorbing the environment around you. This gives your brain the downtime it needs to process information, reflect, and generate insights.13 At first, you might be unable to do this for even one minute! But it gets easier with practice. Try enjoying your quiet moments outside. Get started with mindfulness. You can be mindful (fully present) without meditating, but an easy way to get started with mindfulness is through short, guided meditations. Many apps can help you with this (try the Buddhify, Simple Habit, or Headspace apps). Even just two- to five-minute guided meditations can help. The more you meditate, the more you become aware of your thoughts and emotions as they arise, which in turn helps you regulate them and your reactions to them. The ability to recognize an emotion as it happens is the key to your EQ, or emotional intelligence, and your EQ can be more important to your success than your intelligence.14 Spend time every week completely free from technology. When you head outside for a walk or a hike, see a movie, play sports, or have dinner with friends or family, leave your phone at home. You may feel panicky at first. But after you get over the initial shock, you might find it liberating! Do some physical activity every day, especially before times when you really need to focus. Movement sends oxygen to your brain, sharpening your focus. If you’re at work, take a few minutes to walk up and down the stairs a couple of times before sitting down, setting your timer, and tackling that single task.
- Take regular breaks. Work on one longer task or a series of consecutive tasks (one at a time!) for twenty-five to ninety minutes, and then take a break for five to seventeen minutes. Expert opinion varies on the optimal stretch of time one should work before taking a break,15 as well as the optimal length for a break. But the truth is, everyone is different, every day is different, and every set of tasks is different. Some people have more energy than others; at some times of the day, you’re more energetic than others; and some tasks are more engaging than others. Honor how you’re feeling and recognize that a work break can be just as energizing as caffeine or sugar, provided you actually do something different. For example, if you’ve spent the last sixty minutes reading reports, using your break to read the news or your Facebook feed isn’t restorative. Instead, move your body, do a short, guided meditation, or even close your eyes and rest or doze for ten minutes if you can find a private place to do that“
- “Life is just too complex to rely on your memory to track all of your work and personal obligations. When was the last time your mind pulled up the exact information you needed at the exact time you needed it, on command? So the first thing you have to do is get all this information out of your head.”
Tarek Naim's Blog 