We live in a time where distractions are almost impossible to avoid. Whether it’s because of the ease with which we’re able to be reached, or with the constant information overload we get from social media, there is always something or someone fighting for our attention. So when it comes to trying to be productive and stay focused at work, it’s easy to get discouraged when your lunch break rolls around and you feel like you’ve accomplished next to nothing.

But don’t get discouraged just yet. I want to give you a few tips and tricks you can implement to help yourself avoid distractions and stay on task in order to have the most productive workday possible. I can assure you that if you take these tips to heart, you’ll see almost immediate results in your focus and productivity at work, and you’ll be amazed and how much more you’re able to accomplish. 

Make a to-do list every Monday. As you start your week, the first thing I would recommend you do is to make a to-do list that includes everything you need to accomplish that week. Write it all down, and once you do, decide which tasks you want to reserve for each day. Not only will this keep you from feeling overwhelmed on Monday, but it will keep you from procrastinating until Friday. Delegating your tasks to specific days helps make your workload seem more manageable and makes it easy to get started on work each morning when you know exactly what needs to be done that day.

Block your calendar. Once you’ve created your week’s to-do list, take the time to block your calendar and set aside time to work on specific projects and tasks. You might want to do this at the beginning of each day rather than trying to block out your whole week in case last-minute meetings or projects pop up. But, even by blocking your calendar out each morning, you’re able to create a game plan for how much time you’re going to work on each task you’ve assigned for that day, and this will help you stay focused when you know you only have to work on a certain task for an hour or two. The last thing your brain needs is to think you have all day to accomplish something because that’s when it’s easy to let distractions take over.  

Put your phone on the other side of the room. I know, I know...that seems like a little much, right? But think about how many times you pick up your phone just out of habit, whether or not you even have an urgent notification. One statistic states that you spend an average of 90 seconds on your phone every time you pick it up. This means you lose about 40 minutes of your workday just checking your phone, not even performing bigger tasks on it. Think about how much you could get done in 40 minutes – how many emails you could answer, how much content you could write, how much research you could do. That 40 minutes could make a bigger difference than you think, so just trust me and put your phone on the other side of the room when it’s time to be productive at work. You can always go check it on breaks or during lunch to make sure you don’t miss anything important. In the end, I think you’ll be surprised at the increase in your productivity when your phone isn’t sitting 6 inches away from you at all times.