Focus bursts

The world in general and my environment specifically gets filled with more and more distractions. Concentrating and getting stuff done is not easy in this surrounding. There might be people that are able to cope with this. Sometimes it is also for me possible. However, if there is a constant, unnatural noise around you - for me this is living in a city - on the streets, in public transport, in the office, then I crave for the quiet sounds of nature. Even putting my head phones on and listen to my favorite music is sometimes not enough.

In this case I listen to birdsong radio. It tends to keep me calm and lets me focus better. A customisable alternative can be found with Relax Melodies which is an app for your phone and your computer. With it you can create your own background sounds, mix and match them, save them for the next focus burst.

Additionally, when I feel stressed and not able to focus I do one more thing. Before listening to those background sounds I close all my email clients and applications that could create notifications. I try to leave open only the applications that I need for working on my task.

Don't get me wrong. I am not perfect with this. I still get distracted by my brain that wants to check email every five minutes. Sometimes it can be very hard to resist this urge and focus. It is something that I (maybe we) have to learn again.

Post image taken by
Stadt Braut, published under CC BY-SA 2.0.