Environment

Your personal environment plays a large role in your ability to concentrate. The more comfortable and welcoming your environment is, the easier it will likely be for you to stay there and focus.

Here are some ideas for improving your physical environment:

1. Make sure you're comfortable. Ensure that your chair and desk are at the right height for you to work comfortably. If not, you'll be tempted to use this as an excuse to get up and walk away.
2. Put up pictures. Viewing a natural scene or watching wildlife can help improve concentration. Choose landscapes or natural images that you enjoy. This can help you focus if you can see the pictures from your desk
3. Shut out distractions as much as possible. Listening to music can help, especially if it's instrumental music. Some people use noise machines which produce a steady "white noise", like ocean waves or falling rain. This can drown out other noise, helping you focus better and ignore distractions. Read more...

• Take short breaks - We can be masters at focusing, but eventually we're going to need a break. Our minds can struggle to focus intensely on tasks for eight hours a day. This is where it can be better to divide your work into one-hour segments, with a 5-10 minute break between tasks. This short break will allow your mind to rest before focusing again.

• Do your hardest tasks when you're most alert - This will help you maximize your concentration.

• Use a phone headset - If you have a headset for your phone, consider using it for a few hours each day. If your colleagues think you're on the phone, they're less likely to interrupt you.

• Promise yourself a reward - For instance, make a rule that if you focus intensively for 45 minutes on one task, you can take a break to get a cup of coffee when you're done. Little "self-rewards" can often be great motivators.

• Schedule email downloads - It can be tremendously distracting to have emails pinging into your inbox every few minutes - you're tempted to stop what you're doing, and answer them right away. If you can, schedule your emails to download only a few times each day, and deal with all of your emails in one go.

These tips came from Bev's training on Procrastination and Time Management. She will be presenting a seminar on "Time Wasters Anonymous: How do I Retire from this Club" on April 19th at the Baltimore Washington Corridor Chamber.  

This seminar is free and open to the public, at their Laurel, MD office. To register, please call 301-725-4000.

"Peer Power: Transforming Workplace Relations - Part I"

Peer Power gives you the keys to effective interpersonal collaboration. Building on a foundation of four principals (Be Real, Extend Respect, Take Responsibility and Build Relations) staff will expand their abilities to positively influence others in difficult situations. Peer Power explores nine behavior patterns that may bedevil you at work and helps you to learn how to respond constructively.

In this first workshop, we focus on transforming workplace relationships, reduce conflict and cultivate a culture of collaboration. As organizations expect more output from fewer resources, workplace conflict increases. 36% of employees report that they deal with conflict constantly or frequently. Chronic unresolved conflict is a factor in at least half of employee departures. The average annual cost to US companies for time spent dealing with conflict is more than $350 billion.

Addressing the challenges of workplace conflict through the Peer Power program, is not just about helping you and your co-workers get along. It's about improving the productivity and effectiveness of your team, driving the success of your business and reducing a controllable business expense.

Bev completed the following trainings in March

• "How to Have the Best Relationship with your Boss" to a major library system.

• "Riding the Wave of Change" to a Community College

• "Conflict Resolution" and "Managing Change" to VA System

• "Conflict Management" to a Maryland State Agency