What's the best way to stay in focus mode at work?

Practice being bored.

Do things that require your focus without reacting or scanning for threats or stimulus

Like meditation, long, boring exercise, like a walk or long jog, or many kinds of tedious manual labor. These activities require focus, but generally, they are not stimulating.

They'll help you bootstrap work in the early, boring part. Eventually your work will become engaging enough not to need it. But often getting started is the hardest part.

Depends on what your work is. I would go ahead and assume you have the possibility to block time and decide what task you work on and when during the day. If not the below tips may not be applicable 100%.

These are based on my work experience in IT in a large and fast-paced FANG company.

1/Reduce the quantity: Push back against as much tasks as you can. "Urgent" tasks are rarely urgent..., take with a grain of salt. Use the "Delete, Delegate, Delay and Do" concept as a mental model if you're unsure (https://betterhumans.pub/delete-delegate-delay-do-8ab729ffd3...).

2/Use the "Most Important Tasks"concept. Pick one or two main things you need to get done each day and focus on that. Leave the rest for the end of day and check point 1/.

3/Finally look at time management/optimisation not just at how you optimise time today/tomorrow but also long-term. For example doing a task yourself might be more quick than training someone you work to do it. However once you train that person you can delegate it and get "time optimisation returns" in the future :)

Hope this helps, cheers !

Enjoying what you do is the best way to stay focused. If you can't stay focused, assuming you are healthy, it's most likely because you are trying to distract yourself to get dopamine hits so you can survive the day.

If you can't get a job doing what you enjoy, the next best thing is to learn to enjoy what you do.

I semi-regularly refer colleagues to this article I read some years back "The Interruptible Programmer" - it argues that it's hard to stay in the zone, so instead accept that you're going to be interrupted and embrace it.

https://www.stevestreeting.com/2010/09/04/work-2-0/

For me, reducing cycle time really helps. There's a window where if the build takes longer than X, I'm going to get tired of waiting and look for something else to do, and there goes the focus.

Otherwise, avoid outside intrusions if possible. Turn off, at least temporarily, notifications for things that can wait. Wear headphones to avoid sounds from around you, etc.

Here's what I do:

- Eliminate distractions. Close down extraneous apps. Go down to one monitor if you have to.

- Use a Pomodoro timer. I set mine to 20 minute cycles.

- Learn self-discipline. It really comes down to discipline and this will help you in so many other areas of life.

I'm not sure how people can focus without noise canceling headphones. There are too much distractions.

I used Bose QC2 for 5 years, and recently I bought Airpods Pro which are perfect in my opinion.

Like Nike, just do it

Find the smallest possible bit of work in your tasks and do it, 10 minutes. After awhile you should find interest to focus on the task to finish it

Set hours where you 100% stop using IM, checking email, or letting coworkers talk to you. During that time don't check any intranet noise either.

If the work is uninteresting and dragging, I don't think there is a way. I'll probably find a new job.

some background music helps me focus,

e.g. somafm music: groove salad channel https://somafm.com/groovesalad/, and there are some music for focus on youtube as well.

Minimize distractions, plan your tasks and take a look at the Pomodoro Technique.

Change what you work on until you don't want to do anything else.