To stay focused at work, decide your one most important task before you open email, silence the sources of interruption you control, and work in timed blocks of 25 to 50 minutes with a real break between them. Plan what you will do when you get distracted, and work beside other people when the task is hard to start.
Below are eight steps in the order you would use them during a workday, with the research behind each one. None of them needs a new app or a new job.
Roomie Cafe is a free focus timer you share with friends. We make it, and we mention it briefly near the end. The rest of the post has nothing to do with us.
Before you start
1. Pick one task before you open anything
Write the one task that would make today a good day. Do it first, before the inbox and the chat window. When you move between work tasks, part of your attention stays on the task you left. Researchers call this attention residue, and it made performance on the next task worse in the studies reported [1].
Choosing one task up front means fewer switches. If you want a longer treatment, our guide to monotasking shows how to do one thing at a time.
2. Move your phone out of reach
In two experiments, people whose own smartphone was merely nearby had less cognitive capacity available for other tasks, even when they did not check it. The cost was highest for people who depend most on their phones [2]. This finding comes from lab studies with students, so treat it as a reason to try the change, not as a guarantee.
Put the phone in a bag or a drawer. If you need it for work calls or two factor codes, turn off every notification except calls.
3. Turn off the interruptions you cause yourself
Many interruptions are chosen. Email pop ups, chat badges and open tabs all pull you away. In a study of office work, people finished interrupted tasks in less time without a drop in quality, but they got there by working faster, and they reported more stress, frustration, time pressure and effort [3].
Close the mail client and set the chat app to "do not disturb" for the length of one block. Check both at your breaks. If you are using your own focus rules while at home, our post on working from home alone covers the setup.
While you work
4. Work in timed blocks
A timer gives the task an edge. "Work on the report" has no end, while "work on the report until 10:25" does. Start with 25 minutes if you are unsure. Our Pomodoro method guide explains the 25 and 5 pattern, and deep work covers longer blocks for tasks that need more room.
Pick one length and stick to it for a week before you change it. You learn more from a steady rhythm than from changing the timer every day.
5. Decide in advance what you do when you get distracted
A distraction is easier to handle when the response is already chosen. A meta analysis of implementation intentions, plans of the form "if X happens, I will do Y", found that they help people reach their goals [4]. We do not quote an effect size here.
Write two or three of your own:
- If I want to check my phone, I will write the reason on a note and keep working until the timer ends.
- If a new request arrives, I will add it to a list and answer it at my next break.
- If my mind drifts, I will read the task note and do the next small step.
6. Take real breaks
A meta analysis of 22 study samples (N = 2,335) found that micro breaks gave small but statistically significant gains in vigor (d = 0.36) and reduced fatigue (d = 0.35). The effect on overall performance was not significant (d = 0.16), and longer breaks boosted performance more [5].
So breaks help how you feel, and they work best when they are long enough to rest. Stand up, drink water, look out of a window. Leave your phone alone, because a five minute scroll often becomes thirty. If you tend to scroll, our post on doom scrolling explains why it is hard to stop.
When focus will not come
7. Work beside someone else
Some people find it easier to start when another person is working at the same time. This is called body doubling. The evidence for it is still thin, and our post on what body doubling is separates what has been studied from what people report. Agree on a start time with a colleague or friend, say what you will do, and check in at the end of the block. It does not need a camera. Our guide to body doubling without a camera lists ways to do it.
8. Check the basics, then check your attention
Poor sleep, hunger and stress all make focus harder. If trouble concentrating is constant and affects your whole life, not only your workday, talk to a doctor or a mental health professional. Our post on why you can't focus lists common causes, and how to focus with ADHD has tips written for that case.
A simple plan for one morning
Where Roomie Cafe fits
If you want a timer you share with other people, Roomie Cafe is a free focus timer: you start a session, friends see that you are focusing, and you can work in the same rhythm without a call. It is one way to do step 7. Our manifesto explains why we built it.
References
- Leroy, S. (2009). Why is it so hard to do my work? The challenge of attention residue when switching between work tasks. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 109(2). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2009.04.002
- Ward, A. F., Duke, K., Gneezy, A., & Bos, M. W. (2017). Brain drain: The mere presence of one's own smartphone reduces available cognitive capacity. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 2(2), 140 to 154. https://doi.org/10.1086/691462
- Mark, G., Gudith, D., & Klocke, U. (2008). The cost of interrupted work: More speed and stress. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '08). https://doi.org/10.1145/1357054.1357072
- Gollwitzer, P. M., & Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation intentions and goal achievement: A meta-analysis of effects and processes. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 69 to 119. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601%2806%2938002-1
- Albulescu, P., Macsinga, I., Rusu, A., Sulea, C., Bodnaru, A., & Tulbure, B. T. (2022). "Give me a break!" A systematic review and meta-analysis on the efficacy of micro-breaks for increasing well-being and performance. PLOS ONE, 17(8). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272460