Credit: Wikipedia

Eating well, especially leafy vegetables increases your ability to focus, so eating a nice salad for lunch is not only healthy and nutritious, but it’s also a great way to have a productive afternoon.

Eating well will also help to stay energised and remain sharp, just what you need for any impending meetings.

Other ‘focus foods’ include:

Wholegrain

Fruit

Fish

Nuts

Blueberries

Remaining well hydrated will increase awareness, sharpness and concentration too, so keep the water nearby and topped up.

2) Plan ahead and schedule your day

Knowing what you have to do during the day, and scheduling time slots for each task, will help you to break you workload into manageable chunks. Prioritising the more important tasks first will ensure these get done and aren’t impacted by the less important tasks over running.

Purchase a calendar with enough space on each day to write in your workload. As you work through your day, tick off the complete tasks to show what you’ve accomplished and what you’ve left to do.

If you’ve any items that are flexible in terms of deadline then these can be moved to a different day if required and it’s always a good idea to leave some time during the day free for any unplanned things that might arise.

3) Listen to music

Listening to music on headphones (or speakers) blocks out audible distraction and allows to to get on with your duties in a focused way. Different types of music have different affects on our brain and how we perform mentally, for instance, one study found that listening to classical music improves our visual attention, helping us to stay focused.

In one study conducted on IT specialists, it was found that those listening to music completed tasks quicker and were more creative than those who didn’t. This may be due to music relaxing our minds and allowing us to make more rational and sensible decisions. In another study by ‘MusicWorks’ 73% of warehouse operatives stated that they’re more productive when there’s background music.

Be sure not to play the music too loudly though, it might block out distractions and help you to focus, but it will quickly become a distraction in itself for your colleagues.

4) Get enough sleep