How to Maintain Focus: Taming Your Wandering Mind

How to Maintain Focus: Taming Your Wandering Mind

Does your mind often get off track when you’re trying to focus? What are some strategies to help you keep your mind from wandering and get it to stay on task? If your mind wanders when you work, you might be bored or anxious. If you’re hyperfocusing, your mind might wander during the extra time that has been freed up by your productivity. Productivity expert Chris Bailey offers two strategies for keeping your mind from wandering: 1) matching your tasks to your skill level and 2) increasing the number of high-impact tasks you do. Read more to learn how to

Attention Management Strategies: Choosing Your Focus

Attention Management Strategies: Choosing Your Focus

Do you struggle to focus on the right things? How can you make sure you’re channeling your attention in the most effective way possible? According to Chris Bailey, the author of Hyperfocus, the quality of the tasks we pay attention to determines the quality of our lives. When we focus on high-quality tasks, we perform high-quality work and have a high-quality impact. When we focus on low-quality tasks, even if we perform high-quality work, we will have a low-quality impact. Here are two helpful attention management strategies to help you decide what truly deserves your attention.

Urgency Addiction: The Modern Dilemma

Urgency Addiction: The Modern Dilemma

Have you ever been faced with a crisis, come up with a solution, and felt that incredible sense of success and relief? How does a sense of urgency create a false sense of accomplishment? Although urgent situations are stressful, resolving them creates a high that you can become addicted to. However, urgency addiction is a self-destructive habit that only temporarily fills a void, whether it be the lack of a larger purpose or a desire for a sense of achievement.  Here’s why handling urgency is so addictive, according to Stephen Covey.

What Is Task-Shifting—& How Does It Hold You Back?

What Is Task-Shifting—& How Does It Hold You Back?

What is task-shifting? How is it different from multi-tasking? We often talk about multitasking—doing more than one task at a time. While we certainly do this, we probably are engaged far more often in task-shifting—rapidly switching our focus from one task to another. Productivity expert Chris Bailey explains task-shifting and provides two reasons why it lowers productivity. Read on to learn about task-shifting and its impact on success.

How to Set Up a BuJo Future Log

How to Set Up a BuJo Future Log

What is a BuJo future log? How do you set it up and use it? A BuJo (or bullet journal) future log is a way to keep track of future events that wouldn’t be in your immediate schedule—such as birthdays, holidays, and appointments. Ryder Carroll, the author of The Bullet Journal Method, says the future log is an important part of an effective bullet journal. Here’s how to use a future log in your bullet journal.

The Brain on Autopilot: How It Impacts Productivity

The Brain on Autopilot: How It Impacts Productivity

How does the brain function on autopilot? Are there any advantages to being in autopilot mode? Productivity expert Chris Bailey explains that our brains operate on autopilot by default. Instead of choosing what to focus on in advance, we react to the external triggers that pique our interest. Keep reading to learn about the pros and cons of the brain’s autopilot mode.

The 4 Time Management Quadrants: Explained

The 4 Time Management Quadrants: Explained

What are the four quadrants of time management? What quadrant is the most important? There are four time management quadrants. Quadrant I is both urgent and important. Quadrant II is important, but not urgent. Quadrant III is urgent, but not important. And Quadrant IV is neither urgent nor important. According to Stephen Covey, you should focus most of your time in Quadrant II—where you do activities that are important, but not urgent. Keep reading to learn about Stephen Covey’s time management quadrants, and why you should shift your focus to Quadrant II.

How to Face Problems in Life: “The Five Whys” Method

How to Face Problems in Life: “The Five Whys” Method

Do you struggle to overcome challenges in life? How can bullet journaling help you face your problems and overcome them? Bullet journaling might sound like a silly solution to such a fundamental problem. But Ryder Carroll, the author of The Bullet Journal Method, suggests using a bullet journal to break down your problems to discover their root causes so you can face them head-on. Here’s how keeping a bullet journal can help you deconstruct your problems.

How Meta-Awareness Can Boost Productivity

How Meta-Awareness Can Boost Productivity

What is meta-awareness? How could attention tracking help you focus on the right things? In the context of attention, meta-awareness is simply being aware of what you’re paying attention to. By practicing meta-awareness in the form of attention tracking, you can become acutely aware of where your attention goes. Here is how meta-awareness can help you focus more deliberately and, as a result, be more productive.