Why Focus Is Your Greatest Competitive Advantage at Work (Plus 19 Ways To Actually Do It)

The science is in and the results are undeniably bleak:

Context switching — constantly shifting your attention from one app, screen, or task to another — is to your productivity what smoking is to your health.

Here are just a few of the unsettling statistics:

• Trying to focus on more than one thing at a time reduces your productivity by as much as 40%. That’s the cognitive equivalent of pulling an all-nighter.
• The average desk job employee loses 2.1 hours a day to distractions and interruptions. That adds up to over a full day of work every week.
• On average, employees who do the majority of their work on computers are distracted every 10.5 minutes.
• Being distracted by incoming calls or emails can lower employees’ IQ by as much 10 points.

Luckily, it’s not all bad news.  44% of those work distractions are self-inflicted and another 23% come from emails.

That means you have complete control to cut out (or at least drastically reduce) 67% of the productivity-killing distractions that derail your entire workday.

The number one skill that will set you apart from 99% of the world’s highly distractible knowledge workers is the ability to ruthlessly single-task.  Here’s why:

What your desktop should not look like.

1) When you work on one thing at a time, you tend to work on the right things. Effective single-tasking requires planning. Starting your day without a plan is just asking for distraction and inefficiency. When you sit down in the morning, or better yet the night before, to plan our your to-do list it forces you to prioritize and consider what tasks will have the highest impact on your work. Instead of getting lost in the never-ending weeds of seemingly urgent, yet ultimately unimportant busy work. In short, you’ll be someone who moves the needle important projects.

2) When you single-task you accomplish more in less time with less stress. We’ve already reviewed the sobering statistics on multi-tasking.  Intentionally focusing on one task at a time has been proven the most efficient way to move through your to-do list.  It also lowers feelings of stress, frustration, and feelings of perceived effort.  The bottom line is that working through your to-do list one task at a time is an effective way to become a happier, more productive employee.

How to build a rock-solid single-tasking habit

I’m not going to lie to you, single-tasking is hard. I certainly haven’t mastered the art of it and it would appear that there aren’t any magical shortcuts (but don’t worry, I’ll keep looking).

In the meantime, here’s what I’m 99% sure is the most complete list of single-tasking strategies available on the Internet (if someone finds a better list, please share it with me!). These strategies are not mutually exclusive and are actually most effective when used together to bolster your single-tasking efforts.  They’re organized into the 4 essential components of effective single-tasking:

1. Cutting out distractions.
2. Make a single-tasking plan you’ll actually stick to.
3. Dealing with unavoidable distractions.
4. Getting back on track when you’ve fallen off the single-tasking band wagon.

Cutting out distractions

On average, It takes employees a whopping 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back to their original task once they are interrupted. The first step to single-tasking is to cut out as many distractions in your workday as possible.

1. Fight apps with more apps.

Trusting yourself to simply avoid the distracting sites you’re in the habit of visiting is a recipe for failure. I speak from experience.

Luckily, there are a number of services out there that will block them for you. Freedom and Anti-Social are both great options for blocking distracting websites for preset periods of time.

2. Turn off notifications.

This is an old piece of advice, but that’s because it’s so effective. Seriously, do it. Try turning off all of your desktop notifications for a week and see the difference in your productivity. I know the quick glance to the upper right-hand corner of your screen seems harmless enough, but the time and mental focus lost in attention-switching even for a second adds up throughout the day.

If the thought of turning your phone on silent gives you palpitations, at least turn on priority notifications. Most phones will allow you to designate certain apps as priority. Some phones will even allow you to automatically switch to and from priority mode at certain times of the day. That way you can cut out unnecessary distractions while making sure you don’t miss anything important.

3. Use two computers.

Todoist’s founder, Amir, swears by using two computers to stay focused. He uses his iPad for everything that is likely to very distracting during the day: namely team and external communication. Then he closes his iPad and does his focused work on his regular computer:

One of the things I noticed I do a lot (especially when presented with hard problems) is to procrastinate by opening my email, opening Hacker News or something similar. One way I’ve found to fix this is to have two computers. One computer is where I do work and productive things. Unproductive things are blocked on this computer.  I have another computer (an iPad) where I do unproductive work, such as check Hacker News, Facebook etc.

4. Only keep one tab open at time.

This is a simple, yet effective work strategy that Buffer co-founder Leo Widuch uses to stay focused and efficient during the day.  Single-tabbing raises the barrier to task switching since you’ll have to close what you’re currently working on in order to start working on something else. It’s a concrete way to make sure that you’re only working on what you intentionally decided to be working on.

5. Use separate desktop spaces.

Now that I’ve told you to single-tab, I have to be honest. While I love the idea, I’ve never been able to get the habit to stick very well. I’ve decided to go with the perhaps less effective, but much more realistic (for me) strategy of using multiple desktops on my laptop to keep my tasks separated. 

I limit myself to four desktops only: one for communication windows (Gmail, Slack, Todoist, Sunrise Calendar) and the other three for the windows associated with different projects I plan to work on that day. I add a different background to each desktop so I know exactly which task I’m focusing on at any given time. I’ve found that this decreases the likelihood that I’ll switch tasks mid-way into working on something else.

6. Work offline whenever possible.

I know that for much of the time, working on our computers is synonymous with working online. That said, whenever you do have a task that doesn’t require the Internet, no good can come from staying connected. I’ve dropped the time it takes me to write a blog post by half by simply turning off the wifi while I work on my first draft.

7. Schedule your email time.

When used wisely, email is probably the greatest productivity tool since fire.  When used carelessly, it’s a Pandora’s box of distractions just waiting to derail your day. But it can be tamed.

Schedule specific blocks of time into your day to deal with your email. I find checking it just twice a day at 11am and 4:30pm works best for me. It usually takes me between 15-30 minutes to get down to inbox zero each time.  During your scheduled email time, follow David Allen’s 2-minute rule: Handle any emails that will take 2-minutes or less. Add everything else to your to-do list to focus on later.

Making a single-tasking plan you’ll actually stick to

In order to single-task effectively, you need to know what it is exactly that you want to be working on.  During the day, you should never have to ask yourself the question “What should I work on next?”.  

8. Keep a to-do list with focused, actionable items

Make time either first thing in the morning or at the end of the work day to consider your current projects and identify the next concrete task you need to complete to move things forward. Add that task to your to-do list. While a daily review requires a time investment up front, it will pay huge dividends throughout the day as you single-task your way through your list.

9. Visualize your to-do’s one at a time.

When you’re single-tasking, it helps to only see one task at a time. One simple, way to do this is to transfer your to-do’s from your task manager onto post-it notes when you’re planning out your day. Use one post-it per task and keep them in the order you’ll do them.  When you’ve completed your task, just remove it and start working on the next one. (HT to the Crew Blog for this incredibly effective trick.)  

I like to move my “to-done” post-its to the corner of my desk to visualize how much I’ve accomplished during the day. Seeing progress helps me feel motivated during the post-lunch productivity doldrums.

10. Schedule your daily to-do’s.

Another way to stay focused on one task at a time is to schedule your to-do’s on your calendar. Each task gets a specific time slot when you’ll only work on that one item on your list. That way you’ll know exactly what to give your full attention to at any given point throughout your day.