Time management Vs Focus Management

Time Management Vs Focus management

People often complain about lack of time when the lack of direction is the real problem

 by Zig Ziglar

Time Management

Time management is the ability to plan your time productively and manage your assigned tasks in an effective and efficient manner.

Effective time management strategies support efforts in scheduling your time, prioritizing your responsibilities, planning and accomplishing goals, and working toward project or assignment deadlines.

Poor time management can produce problems with procrastination, over-extending yourself, and self-control. Time management is directly related to project management.

Good time management is necessary for successful project planning and scheduling.

Focus Management

Focus is a central point, as of attraction, attention or activity.

Focus management is about being able to focus on the task at hand and keep distractions at bay.

Focus management is the idea of examining the amount of attention given to certain tasks and distractions.

The purpose of focus management is to help individuals stay focused on the essential tasks while attempting to avoid distractions in order to increase their efficiency.

Some believe there is no way to manage time,but can manage where attention to be focused within a particular set time frame.

One of the key battlegrounds in the future knowledge war will be the management of focus, understanding how it is allocated by individuals and organizations, knowing how to capture it more effectively for important information and knowledge, using technology to get, keep and protect it.

Distractions around in today’s fast-paced work environment, enveloped in technology

Few of those distractions as we are up against each day.

·        1. Phone and computer notifications, research, email and socializing.

2.The two P’s of social media: Posting and Perusing.

3. Chasing squirrels and shiny objects that sound interesting or more fun than what we’re currently working on.

Researchers say the stimulation that we get from constantly checking our devices create an addiction with a squirt of dopamine. There may be something interesting to see with every click. So, we check our email and texts and they are stimulating. We check our social media likes, hearts and comments and they are stimulating. Without all this stimuli, we can actually start to feel bored.

There was a study by Silverpop that said we have eight seconds to capture someone’s attention online before they move onto the next thing. Consider how quickly we scroll through photos and videos on Instagram and Facebook and we get just a quick peek of photos and videos on Snapchat. We are getting used to sending and receiving information very quickly.

 Stanford University researchers Ophir, Nass and Wagner reported as early as 2009 that they considered “processing multiple incoming streams of information is considered a challenge for human cognition” (Cognitive control in media multitaskers; 2009).

Their tests showed that mega-multitaskers, rather than performing better, actually had a more difficult time focusing on individual tasks and were more vulnerable to environmental distractions.

How to overcome?

1.      Acknowledgement.

 There will always be more information available then you have time for. The information on the internet is endless and sometimes we just have to put a cap on how much time we invest in research. For example.

2.      Clearcut Goal

Be very clear with goals. Know exactly what you want and how you’re going to get what you want before you do the work that it takes to reach your goals. Once you are clear, it will help you put your focus in the correct places.

3.      Evaluate each activity or request on your time and energy to decide whether or not it helps your goals or hurts your goals and your focus.

4.      Say no to activities and requests that take you away from your goals. No more guilt over this one, we all need to get past the guilt.  

5.      Retrain yourself to be okay with downtime and less stimulation instead of being on all the time. Find relaxing activities you enjoy such as listening to music, dancing, soaking in a bubble bath, meditation, coloring or practicing yoga. You can even just sit quietly.

6.      Eliminate distractions while you’re working on critical tasks. Critical tasks are activities that help you reach your goals, increase your income, have a deadline or have a financial consequence associated with it.

7.      Decrease content in your life by evaluating what you can let go. It may be like a group on social media, newsletters, junk mail, magazine subscriptions, newspaper subscriptions or activities. 

8. Plan your first three hours carefully because you are at your productivity peak

References

Time Management vs Attention Management, Student Success Guide, at Excelsior CollegeTime

Management or Focus Management? Posted on 12 Dec 2012, Crystal

Productivity & Time Management, 14 Aug 2017, Monika Krisstofferson

Photos has been uploaded from Google Focus related images