In our quest for peak productivity, we’ve gathered insights from CEOs, Presidents, and other busy professionals on how they cut through the noise and stay laser-focused. From the benefits of embracing remote work flexibility to the practice of time blocking, explore the eleven powerful strategies these experts employ to keep distractions at bay and maintain focus.
- Embrace Remote Work Flexibility
- Use Pomodoro Technique
- Visualize a Mind Palace
- Create Power Hours
- Meet Basic Needs and Deadlines
- Organize with Online Task Managers
- Schedule Calls Strategically
- Restructure Calendar for Flow
- Take Refreshing Breaks
- Block Digital Interruptions
- Time Block Your Calendar
Embrace Remote Work Flexibility
From my perspective, it’s part of human nature to be distracted. Our curiosity seeps through our daily routines. However, we also have our own spikes of productivity innate within us. Finding the balance between the two, especially when the work setup allows it, is the key to productivity maximization.
At CarePatron, we embrace a culture of flexibility and trust by operating with a fully remote team. Our team members manage their schedules and work hours as they see fit, allowing them to thrive in different time zones and prioritize their well-being. This empowers them to consistently deliver exceptional work, regardless of location.
We acknowledge that this setup might not work for all industries, but whenever possible, this might be something other companies can also use to their advantage. Once utilized effectively, remote work is something that truly boosts productivity while fostering a healthy work environment.
Jamie Frew, CEO, Carepatron
Use Pomodoro Technique
Remove distractions from your sight! We prioritize tasks and silence notifications to focus. Try the Pomodoro Technique: work in 25-minute bursts with short breaks.
Beth Worthy, Cofounder and President, GMR Transcription Services, Inc.
Visualize a Mind Palace
At Resilient Stories, maintaining focus and productivity is crucial, especially when curating and creating deeply impactful content. One of my most effective strategies for avoiding distractions is the use of the “Mind Palace” technique.
The Mind Palace, or Method of Loci, involves visualizing a familiar place—such as your home or a specific route you know well—and associating different items or concepts with various locations within that space.
Traditionally used for memory enhancement, this technique can be adapted to help me maintain focus and structure my thoughts without distraction.
I visualize a “room,” my Mind Palace, specifically dedicated to the current task. This mental room is free from any distractions that might exist in my physical environment.
For instance, when working on a story, I imagine a serene library or a tranquil garden where only the materials related to the story are present. This visualization creates a mental boundary that helps exclude irrelevant thoughts and interruptions.
Then I place different aspects of the tasks in distinct locations. For example, research materials might be visualized as books on a shelf, key story elements as objects on a table, and images I make for social media as paintings on the walls.
This spatial organization in the Mind Palace helps compartmentalize different parts of the project, making it easier to focus on one element at a time without feeling overwhelmed.
Now, I “walk” through my Mind Palace, addressing each task or element in its designated location. This mental navigation helps maintain a clear, structured approach to work, reducing the likelihood of getting sidetracked.
When distractions arise, I mentally “close the door” to the room where these distractions are visualized, effectively compartmentalizing them away from my current focus area.
I enhance the Mind Palace technique by associating sensory cues with the visualized environment.
For example, when I envision myself in a peaceful library, I open up the curtains in my office window. I let in the daylight, creating a bright yet calm environment. I play a clip of page-turning/paper-rustling background noise. I even have a few wax melts that are called “Library” and “Old Books.”
By creating a mental space dedicated to my tasks and shielding it from distractions, I can immerse myself deeply in my work and bring our best stories to life.
Danielle Dahl, Co-Founder, Resilient Stories
Create Power Hours
I create Power Hours to focus on important proposals, communication, and writing that require full attention. How this works is: Gather all the pertinent information needed to be prepared for the Power Hour. Time spent searching for documents or information is distracting. Turn off cell phones, notifications, and possible interruptions, and set a timer for an hour. Productivity from this strategy is effective and efficient.
Lorraine Lane, Executive and Business Coach, Lane Business Consulting
Meet Basic Needs and Deadlines
One of the most effective strategies I’ve found for maintaining focus and maximizing productivity is ensuring my basic needs are met. This means getting enough sleep, eating well, and staying hydrated. Without these essentials, my concentration quickly dwindles.
Another key element is having clear deadlines and knowing that others depend on the completion of my tasks. This creates a sense of urgency and accountability, pushing me to stay on track and avoid distractions.
By addressing both my physiological needs and the external pressures of deadlines and team expectations, I find that I can maintain focus and achieve more throughout the day.
Anastasia Myasnikova, COO, KeepPet, Inc.
Organize with Online Task Managers
One of the most effective strategies for avoiding distractions and maintaining focus is to use an online task manager. As someone who relies heavily on these tools, I’ve found them essential for staying organized and on track.
I’ve used Asana for years to clearly outline my tasks and priorities and create structure in my day. When I can see each task, it becomes easier to maintain momentum and avoid the overwhelm that often leads to distractions.
Plus, having all my tasks in one place means I don’t waste time trying to remember what needs to be done next.
Carey Bentley, CEO, Lifehack Method
Schedule Calls Strategically
I have ADHD, and it’s a necessity to have calls on particular days of the week. I can’t focus when I know there is a call hanging over my head, so at the end of every month, I evaluate which calls are important as I head into a new month, which can be pushed/turned into a video thread, and keep them on dedicated days so I can focus on work the other days.
Adriana Richardson, Owner & CEO, The Lazy Millennial
Restructure Calendar for Flow
After a few years into business, when I finally hit my stride with a steady flow of client work, I felt myself drowning in perpetual context-switching. The urge to always reach inbox zero would pull me away from the deep work required for a particular client project. Then I found myself losing sleep over always feeling the need to catch up.
I knew something needed to change, but I wasn’t sure what… and certainly did not yet know how to make the shift.
Over the course of a few weeks, I reviewed my paper planner and began to see the pattern of what transpired on days when I felt more aligned versus when I felt more depleted.
A few observations came from that process. I discovered:
– I was allowing myself to have client conversations whenever the client wanted them. It left me with no extended time to get into a creative flow that is needed for a lot of the client work I do (which was often relegated to weekends and evenings when it felt like the rest of my work world was quiet).
– If I had more than three client conversations in one day, I would begin to feel overly tired.
– I was not reserving any time on my calendar for my own work, so it wasn’t happening.
After seeing this laid out so clearly for me, I started to experiment. I felt called to create a structure around my calendar, where previously there wasn’t one:
– I updated my scheduling system so clients could only book calls with me on Tuesdays and Thursdays, leaving MWF to be days I can work on my own business and also do the work from the client calls. 🙂
– I kept an eye on my days, and once I had three meetings scheduled, I would block the rest of the day so no more could be scheduled.
– I started using “buffers” after each meeting to write notes while the topic was fresh on my mind rather than hopping from one call to the next and losing the thread by the end of the day.
– I now block Wednesday mornings to be my creative time where I can write and explore and continue to learn and grow.
– I also decided to check my inbox twice a day (and I pause it at all other times) to help reduce distractions throughout the day and I can remain focused on what I’ve set out to do.
In those first few years of business, my calendar was a free-for-all. Once I had a better understanding of my energetic capacity and what I needed to not only perform my best but also to get my life back, I took a look at how to modify my calendar so that it was a system that could be in support of reaching my flow state.
Maggie Gentry, Thought Partner & Digital Marketer, MaggieGentry
Take Refreshing Breaks
Taking a break when needed is my best strategy for staying focused. If your mind starts to wander and you lose focus, it might be a sign that you need a short break. The mind can get tired when overworked, so taking a 20-minute break can help you return refreshed and ready to work harder, instead of continuing at only 50% capacity.
AL Tran, Realtor, Blogger, Author, DS Inspire
Block Digital Interruptions
One way to stay focused is to cut off digital interruptions. With an app like Freedom, I am able to block social media and other distracting sites while I work, so I don’t have to contend with them throughout my day.
Whenever I receive an email notification, I don’t have to follow up on it immediately—I set aside scheduled times to check and respond to messages. Rather than letting email alerts ping all day and taking me out of my working rhythm, I set aside batches of time to reply.
I also turn off most of my device’s non-essential notifications so that I am not tempted to switch tasks while I work. Cutting off distractions helps me stay on a winning streak, focus on what’s important, and be sure that the four hours I spend working each day are spent productively and efficiently. I can then channel the other 20 hours into things not related to work.
Sunaree Komolchomalee, Head of Human Resources, Cupid Digital PR Agency
Time Block Your Calendar
I do a number of things to ensure that I fully focus on the most important things. I block time in my calendar for almost everything I intend to do. So my calendar is full of work-time blocks, not meetings. Time blocks are labeled with the task or project they are intended for, and I always try to make them longer than my intuition suggests, because nothing is ever as fast as we imagine. They need to be long enough for me to get engrossed. I also close my email client, any IM app, and leave my phone in a different room. That way, I don’t receive emails or texts. Unfortunately, I usually need the Internet for research, or I would close my browser too.
Finally, if I find myself procrastinating over a certain task, I use Focusmate. It’s a great app that matches you with a stranger with whom you co-work on video. Even though I sometimes break my word to myself and procrastinate, I won’t break an appointment. Focusmate gives me that accountability. I recommend all of this for my clients too.
Amie Devero, President, Beyond Better Strategy and Coaching
