We get distracted 275 times a day. Use three ways to stay focused

Distractions are everywhere at work. All you need to do is sit down at your desk, and it doesn’t take long for someone to interrupt you with a question. Even when there’s no one else around, we are bombarded with constant virtual pings from new messages and emails all day long.

It’s little wonder that our focus at work is slipping. Employees are interrupted on average every two minutes during core work hours, according to Microsoft’s most recent Work Trend Index.

That’s a whopping 275 distractions a day by meetings, emails or chats – and that doesn’t even count Chris sliding their chair over for a casual gossip.

By now most of us have heard the standard advice for how to focus better – like switching off notifications or banishing our phone to another room – but there are some counterintuitive ways to get a competitive advantage at work that can help you focus better on the task at hand.

This might sound contrary to everything you believe but the next time your mind starts to wander as you’re trying to complete something, just stop. Quit the urge to keep fighting your way back to focus, and take a break instead.

Consistent research has found that putting your attention elsewhere – from grabbing a biscuit to going for a walk – can help you return to a task with a more focused mind.

Instead of getting frustrated every time you feel your mind wandering, stop trying to stubbornly push through it and just give up, for a little while at least. The simple trick of giving yourself permission to release the pressure can do wonders for your future motivation.

We tend to think that to concentrate we need to strip everyone else from our sight, but the opposite can also be true. From accountability buddies to ‘body doubles’, having other people around you can actually be motivating when it comes to getting things done.

You are more likely to achieve something when you share the specific outcome with other people. If you tell a colleague or friend that you’re finally going to finish that report you’re constantly avoiding, then the positive effect of accountability might actually help you get it done.

There’s also emerging data on the concept of ‘body doubling’, particularly for people with ADHD. This refers to what happens when people work in parallel with each other to complete the same tasks, like group studying sessions where you sit together to all do similar things. This idea of ‘soft accountability’ has been shown to give visible nudges that help you stay on task.

Sometimes we just need to trick our brain into doing what we want, and tapping into your