3 Methods for Digging In

So you have your plan, you know what needs to be done, and how it needs to be done and in what order. The trick now is working your magic to get it done. This, in many ways, can be the hardest of the 7 Stages of Organizing your Digital Life. There are so many different things that are absolutely BEGGING for our attention it can be difficult to pay attention to one task at a time. When you know you have a job to do it’s important to really work hard on your goals. This is why Setting Your Destination was the VERY FIRST step in our process. Having that vision of what you want to accomplish will carry you through this, most challenging part of your project. Planning to Organize your Digital life is easy, execution of the plan is very hard without a firm destination in mind. There are three strategies that I employ whenever I need to need to get some work done;

1) Close your door – When trying to knuckle down and get your job done, one of the easiest ways to do this is close to the door. When you limit access to yourself it makes it so that you have more time and mental energy to focus on your task. Creating a physical barrier between you and the outside world can help create a mental space for you to work. If you are worried about people coming in to see you about this and that, then that is mental energy that you aren’t spending on your project. If you don’t have a door, then there are other things you can do to prevent people from coming to see you. You can put up a sign that says something like “Please don’t see me now, I’m working on something significant” or something to that effect. A word of warning, it’s critical to be respectful in your wording of the sign otherwise people might take it the wrong way.

One of the companies I used to work for had me doing a report that came in monthly, but never on the same date each month. Because of the urgency of this report, I would have to necessarily drop everything and get the report done and sent to head office. One such time was the day after my daughter was born! There was no one else in the office who did this report except me. I reluctantly had to go into the office for an hour or so to do the report. When I went in, I got a piece of paper and wrote in big bold letters “yes my daughter was born and yes she’s adorable, but I have to get my report done. I will talk about it when I’m back.” I planned to take two weeks off to get my wife and daughter out of the hospital and get them settled at home. At the office, that day I was “heads down” working hard on the report and people would come into my cubicle and start to ask me about it, but when they did I would point to the sign, and they would leave me be.

2) Add Music – There is lots of research which shows that listening to music while trying to concentrate can help you immensely. I have found that while working, I like having music on because I don’t end up listening to all the other noises in the room, and or other people talking around me.

To take it one step further, I find that I need different types of music to focus on different things. When I’m walking or running, I like faster-paced music to keep me moving. When I’m working on numbers and excel sheets, I like classical music or music with no words in it. When I’m writing, I have a specific playlist that I use with seven or eight songs that I listen to over and over again. I like listening to my music because it takes my mind off the other things around me.

3) Turn off any other distractions – I love my iPhone, It lets me know when I have e-mail, when I have a text, when my lives on iSlash Heroes have been replenished, but of course this means that whenever my phone rings, beeps or chimes, I am completely helpless and HAVE to check to see what’s going on. This does, however, take away your concentration from doing the work you need to do. In cases where I need to focus, I will put on the Do Not Disturb which silences all notifications. If you remove all the distractions that we get in modern life and dig in you will be amazed how much you can get done in a small amount of time.

Being able to dig into the project you’re trying to complete is one of the most challenging steps often because of all the other things that are happening in your life. Like I said at the top of the post, this is where having a clear vision of your destination is critical to your process. If you don’t have a clear idea of your end destination, then you will come to a point while trying to dig in that you will lose your vision. When you do have a clear idea, it is something that you can rely on while you are working to complete your goal. It will make the work worthwhile, and when you’re done, it will make your Happy Dance (insert hyperlink) that much sweeter.

This is the last of the 7 Steps to Organizational Success posts. I genuinely hope that you have enjoyed reading them. If you have found them useful, I would love to hear from you. If you think what I have presented is helpful, I’d like to hear about it. Make sure to put a comment below. Also if you like this blog post and want to see more, you can follow me on Social Media (LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @jasonlovefiles) and Subscribe to my blog to get new content delivered directly to your mailbox.

This is an entirely fortuitous post for what’s about to happen. In the spirit of Digging in and making sure that I can stay focused, I am going to be taking a week off from posting over the Holidays. I’ll be spending the majority of my time with my family, but I will also be prepping content for the upcoming year. This year was a fantastic start to Jason Love Files, and I have you the reader to thank for that. You have entirely made writing this Blog completely worthwhile. Thank you so much for your support, And I will see you in the new year!

What helps you to dig in?

Let me know in the comments section below. If you like this blog post and want to see more, you can follow me on Social Media (LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @jasonlovefiles) or Subscribe to my blog to get new content delivered directly to your mailbox.