How do you help yourself focus on intense or hard tasks?

I, too, hate working with any artificial light – even when it's dark outside!

Hi Luca,

I read somewhere that once you are distracted, it takes around 20 minutes to get your concentration/focus back and get back 'into the groove' of your work.

Like you, I have so many distractions to contend with . To counteract this, I'm now starting to wake up earlier and start work then. I find that I can get so much more work done then, before any interruptions. I've also spoken to my family and asked them not to disturb me at certain times of the day. One other thing I've done is to ensure that I complete any non-work tasks in certain timeframes (e.g. when I drop my children off at school, I also complete the shopping, just after that. Once I have finished my shopping, I drive home and then start my work). 

I agree with you - it's important to have a clear path, a defined plan and 'deep focus' when you have a goal/target to achieve. Without these in place, the task is made more complicated and likely to succeed by the defined timescales.

Normally, when I need to focus on an important task, I make that my main area of concern and have a clearly defined strategy for it in terms of planning and workflows. By using an iterative process, where I am continually referring to my planned work schedule after completing tasks, I am able to get a better handle on the project.  After each task is completed, I move onto the next one. This has always helped me in the past.

For business as usual activities, I have the radio on - listening to talk radio or some light/easy listening music.

Hi Brett,

I totally concur with all of those points.  However, I do have my phone with me, but I have the sound off, and I will check it every 90 minutes to ensure I haven't missed an important call or message.  Sometimes those missed calls could be potential emergencies, which could potentially take precedence over what you are working on, depending on the situational severity.

I find there are some things like the home deliveries (Amazon, postman etc.) are impossible to ignore, especially as missed deliveries can create a bigger distraction and inconvenience.

Oh yeah, I definitely agree about being available for emergencies.

I have an Apple Watch, which will alert me for any phone calls, and iMessage is on my computer, so I would see any texts that were important, too.