How to Be Focused at Work. And get more done in less time.

I am never more productive in the day, than those first ninety minutes in the morning before the rest of the team gets to the office. The lack of interruptions, the quiet inbox, the absence of office ‘hum’ all contributes to helping me stay in the zone. And then the inevitable noise of the day starts, and that level of focus becomes more difficult.

I think we can all agree that focused time is exponentially more productive than distracted time – but how much more exactly? Research conducted in multitasking experiments show that when we’re distracted, it can take up to twice as long to complete a task. Part of this extra time is because we are also making up to four times when those distractions are happening around us.

So, if you can’t focus at work and would like to, how do you do it? Well, we can wait for everybody to go home, or we can take control of our environment and our physiology to get more done with our time in the office.

What Is Focus, Really?

If we’re going to talk about strategies to focus at work, then we need to understand what it looks like. When we get into the ‘Zone,’ some very specific things happen to us physiologically.

• Heart rate – increases slightly (if it increases too much, we go into the choking zone)
• Brain frequency – our level of brain activity increases and generally in our pre-frontal cortex, depending on the work we need to do. It will also operate at a certain frequency – generally considered an ‘Beta’ or ‘Alpha’ wave.
• Adrenalin and dopamine – both performance chemicals increase slightly and signal reward, motivation and attention. As with heart rate, having too much of these chemicals represents us entering the choking zone.
• Narrowed visual focus – we literally narrow our field of view. We stop noticing so much in our periphery and we stop scanning the environment around us.
• Narrowed attentional focus – in line with our visual focus, we get very clear on what needs our attention and what doesn’t.

Now that we know this, the Performance Zone becomes less esoteric, and more concrete. Basically, if we can recreate the above parameters, we’ll find it easier to get into the zone and learn how to focus at work.

With this in mind, there are three different levels of ‘focus’ that we can bring to our work. Which level you choose might depend on how serious you are about performing focussed work, or it might also be dependent on your environment.

Here are three levels of focus.

"Basically, if we can recreate the above parameters, we’ll find it easier to get into the zone and learn how to focus at work"

Level One: Bare Minimum

Shut out distractions

Unfortunately, humans are hardwired to be distracted which is why we can’t focus at work. It is an evolutionary advantage to pay attention when something unexpected enters our environment. Controlling these distractions is a way of increasing our visual and attentional focus.

Now, I could have written ‘ignore distractions’ but, as with most things when it comes to self-control, it is much easier to control our environment than it is to control ourselves. Here are some tips on altering your environment

• Turn off notifications
• Have a signal so others know not to distract you (headphones or a sign on your desk can seem obnoxious but are incredibly helpful if your team agrees on these methods)
• Use a website blocker so you’re not tempted to browse your favourite news sites
• My favourite: cover your smart phone screen with a sticky-note. You can even write yourself a message on the sticky-note, but even if you don’t it is often just enough of a deterrent to stop your regular habit of picking up your phone for no good reason.

Use caffeine to change your physiology

So, we’ve touched on altering our visual and attentional focus, but can we control our brain chemicals? The answer is yes. One way is through the fuel that we take in, and there is no easier way to do this that with caffeine.

• Caffeine has the following positive influences on the performance zone:
• Increases adrenalin / noradrenalin levels
• Increases dopamine levels in the brain
• Increases alertness/decreases drowsiness (which, ultimately increases brain frequency/activation)

So, that’s Level One. It’s simple, you don’t have to do anything drastic, and it is easy to incorporate into your every day. If you want to go a step further, then there are a couple of extra strategies to focus at work, that you can layer on top of these.

"Another nice side effect is the little dopamine rush you get from a feeling of progress toward your goal"

Related Video: Be More Productive by Doing Less

Level Two: Focus Pro

In Level One, we worked on focus and giving our performance chemicals a boost. Level Two is about taking these strategies deeper and making them more effective.

Set your intention for the session

Setting your intention simply works like this: write down, exactly, the tasks you are going to complete during your session of focussed work.

Notice I used the word ‘complete?’ It is not specific enough to say ‘I’m going to work on the proposal.’ This task has no defined end point and will most likely not be completed during the focus session. Instead, a better intention/to-do would be to say ‘complete the Executive Summary of the proposal.’

Here’s why this is important: One of the ways we increase attentional focus is by having a deadline. I am sure you understand this – but have you thought about how you create mini-deadlines throughout the day to get yourself into the zone? This is one way of doing it and it is shown to increase urgency and therefore adrenalin as well! Most people can’t focus at work because they aren’t clear about what they need to focus for.

Another nice side effect is the little dopamine rush you get from a feeling of progress toward your goal.

Use Visual Focus to Get Deeper in the Zone

Trust me on this one. At the start of your session, and at any break during, when you feel you need to get back into your focussed zone, try this:

Stare at a point approximate 30-60cm away from your face, and focus (stare) on an area no bigger than a fifty cent piece. Hold that stare for about 30 seconds.

You see, feelings and actions influence each other both ways. When our physiology signals that we need to get focussed (via a deadline or threat/reward), we narrow our visual field. But also, when we narrow our visual field, we start to trigger the physiological signals. In performance science, we say ‘feeling follows action’ – when we take positive action it tends to make us feel more positive because of this causal link.

Try Different Stimulants

I mentioned caffeine in Level One, but you can also try different stimulants to see what works for you. There are a bunch of nootropics on the market, so a bit of trial and error is needed. Here are two specific supplements that I tend to use with positive effect:

• Bodyscience Hydroxyburn Shred – this is a supplement primarily focussed on pre-workout stimulation, but also has cognitive benefits. It contains a lot of caffeine as well as various other natural stimulants. However, I find I can have it in the afternoon and it doesn’t impact my sleep whatsoever, due to some other ingredients that offset the stimulant effects. This is great for a cold drink in the afternoon and my focus levels go through the roof.
• Lion’s Mane – Lion’s Mane is a mushroom that is well known for it’s effect on brain health and cognition. It also has benefits that help with anxiety, which makes it a great supplement to boost focus, but keep you on a more even keel than caffeine. I sometimes mix this with a sugar free hot chocolate mix in the afternoon.

So that’s Level Two focus. It is a bit different and, with some experimenting, is guaranteed to help you focus at another level. But, if you really want to do a deep dive into seeing how productive you can be in your focus session, try Level Three.

"Another way we can increase both adrenalin and dopamine is with cold water immersion"

Level Three: Focus Ninja

To really experiment with the limits of your focus and productivity, you are going to need access to some facilities/equipment and be willing to look and feel a little silly (yes, sillier than staring at a spot on the wall for 30 seconds).

Here are some things you can do to increase the response to all the focus physiology we mentioned at the start of this article, allowing you to be focused at work more deeply.

Actively Change Your Brain Frequency

If you recall, the optimum brain frequency for focus is what we call a Beta or Alpha Wave. To generalise, these fall in about the 30-40hz range.

You can manipulate your brain to fall into the 30-40hz range, with the use of music. There are some apps that help do this. My favourites are brain.fm and any of the numerous binaural beats apps you can download (usually for free). These give you an option to choose the frequency of the incoming ‘music’ (I use the word music very generously… this stuff only barely sounds like real music).

So, for instance, at the start of your focus session, you might listen to 5-10 minutes of 40hz music to ‘entrain’ your brain to the right frequency.

Boost Your Memory and Learning Chemicals

We’ve talked about boosting our natural performance chemicals and stimulating our brains with caffeine and other stimulants, but there is another layer of brain-preparation that can help, and a great supplement for this is called Alpha GPC.

Relatively inexpensive and with little to no recorded side effects over many many research studies, Alpha GPC has been shown to boost levels of the chemical acetylcholine in the brain, which is an important ingredient in memory and learning functions. So, not only have we improved our levels of focus, but we have primed our brains for optimal learning and memory.

Change Your Physiology with Breathing and Cold Therapy

There are two other ways we can change our physiology to put us in the zone. One is through a certain type of breathing.

You no doubt know that breathing can calm us down, but it can also fire us up. The difference is in how we do the breath work. To fire up your arousal nervous system, which helps us get in the zone, here’s the protocol:

• Take a long inhale (say three seconds), then a forceful, fast exhale
• Do this 3-5 times and you will start to feel your hand and feet tingle, and your heart rate increase slightly.
• This is because of an increase in adrenalin and movement of your blood toward your central organs.

Another way we can increase both adrenalin and dopamine is with cold water immersion. If you have access to an ice bath, then you can use that, or you might just use a cold shower for 30-120 seconds. I use this when I am working from home: I finish my morning shower on cold for two minutes and then get straight into my first bout of focus work for the day.

Wrap Up

I started this article by observing that focussed work is exponentially more productive than un-focussed, or distracted, work. If you really want to understand how to be focused at work, in order to get more done, there are two elements we can improve. Firstly, we can approach our calendars with the intention of carving out blocks of time. My experience is that this is often more controllable than people believe, but it requires us to defend these blocks of time instead of our usual default, which is just to schedule whatever is easiest for others. Secondly, we can improve the depth to which we focus in these periods and therefore the level of productivity we obtain.

Finally, although the science supports everything you have read above, we also know that it can be very individual – what works for me may not work for you – so the best thing you can do is experiment, be curious, and find the best way to get more out of the time you have.