Here Are The Best Productivity Hacks For Time Management And Focus
When we think about how our brain is able to manage all of the decisions and operations going through our head, we can thank one cognitive role for keeping everything running smoothly: and that’s executive function.
What Is Executive Function?
Think of executive function and self-regulation skills as mental processes that enable us to plan, focus attention, remember instructions, and juggle multiple tasks successfully.
There are three common parts to executive function:
- Working Memory: Consider this to be your mental sticky notepad to help you remember things temporarily while you're doing something, like following instructions, solving problems, or planning tasks.
- Inhibition: Think of this as the traffic cop of your brain that assists you in stopping and thinking before you act, so you can make better choices — like pressing a pause button before doing something impulsive.
- Cognitive Flexibility: This is your mental adaptable problem solver for switching gears and seeing things from all angles.
But living in our current “ADHA culture,” the self-regulation of day-to-day tasks has gotten more difficult to balance, causing a dysfunction in the brain — and I’m one to admit my own struggles in this department.
One part due to adulthood, another due to not reporting to an office setting every day — not to mention the many distractions that we navigate on a daily basis — concentration and moving from one task to the next don’t always come easy to me.
It’s almost as if my brain needs its own personal assistant to delegate the list of responsibilities in my head in order to execute them efficiently. And while I haven’t been formally diagnosed with ADHD, I knew that there had to be something more to my struggles with prioritizing my to-do list, switching from one task to another, and easily getting distracted. And in learning about executive function, I could breathe a sigh of relief when I discovered that there was an actual name to make sense of this miscue in focus and that I wasn’t the only one struggling with it.
“I like to think of ADHD and executive function as a dynamic duo with a unique relationship between the two,” Corey Lewis, CEO and co-founder of the 1AND1 app, tells xoNecole. “As someone who has spent a lot of time around very successful people with ADHD, I've been able to gain insight into the relationship of ADHD with executive function. It's like a rollercoaster ride, with moments of brilliance and occasional challenges. ADHD can impact executive function, making it harder to stay focused, regulate impulses, and manage time effectively.”
"ADHD can impact executive function, making it harder to stay focused, regulate impulses, and manage time effectively."
For both Lewis and his co-founder, Thomas Drew, President at 1AND1, being former professional football players turned entrepreneurs, Drew and Lewis are normalizing mental health conversations through their wellness platform, 1AND1. “We designed the 1AND1 app to aid people in their journey toward becoming 1% better every day through incremental changes,” Drew shares.
Procrastination is a common challenge for those who struggle with executive function because of its direct impact on their ability to initiate and sustain focus on tasks. Due to executive function deficits, prioritizing, planning, and breaking down tedious and monotonous tasks into manageable steps can be difficult to manage, which tends to lead to feeling overwhelmed, anxious, and avoiding tasks altogether, thus resulting in procrastination.
“The key to conquering difficult or monotonous tasks is to break down big goals into small, achievable steps,” Drew explains. To work through these moments of monotony, Drew implements a color-coded system for prioritizing tasks based on urgency. “This helps to identify what needs immediate attention, what can be completed at a later time, and which tasks can be delegated,” he explains.
"The key to conquering difficult or monotonous tasks is to break down big goals into small, achievable steps."
Improving your executive function takes time, effort, and, most importantly, patience. But when you have the right strategies and celebrate small victories, you’ll start to see a boost in your productivity before you know it. And to help you and your brain on track, Lewis and Drew share their top strategies to enhance executive function.
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How To Boost Your Executive Function Skills
Establish And Stick To A Daily Routine:
“Prioritize tasks by importance and urgency, and break them down into actionable steps. Utilize visual aids like calendars, to-do lists, or digital apps to keep yourself organized.”
Gamify As Many Tasks As Possible:
“It gives us the extra dopamine that our brains lack and helps us to get into that hyper-productivity, mega-flow state that is an ADHD superpower. I regularly use our 1AND1 App, which uses AI to build repetition into my schedule.”
Practice Mindfulness And Stress Management Techniques:
“[These] enhance focus and reduce distractions. Taking care of your physical health is also very important. You can accomplish this through regular exercise, proper nutrition, and quality sleep. Small tweaks to your routine can lead to significant improvements in your executive function skills.”
Apply The OTB Strategy:
“The OTB Strategy is anchored by the time-blocking and color-coding method. First, color code your tasks using the system I mentioned previously. Then, start to time block and schedule your daily tasks based on your rules”.
“After you color code and time block, for each day, identify your 'one big thing' — which is the one big thing that, if you were to fully get that done within the day — it would make the day a success. For ADHDers, we need rewards, so even if you don’t get everything done that you wanted to in a day, you can know that you accomplished your OBT, which ultimately made the day a success.”
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Aley Arion is a writer and digital storyteller from the South, currently living in sunny Los Angeles. Her site, yagirlaley.com, serves as a digital diary to document personal essays, cultural commentary, and her insights into the Black Millennial experience. Follow her at @yagirlaley on all platforms!
ItGirl 100 Honors Black Women Who Create Culture & Put On For Their Cities
As they say, create the change you want to see in this world, besties. That’s why xoNecole linked up with Hyundai for the inaugural ItGirl 100 List, a celebration of 100 Genzennial women who aren’t afraid to pull up their own seats to the table. Across regions and industries, these women embody the essence of discovering self-value through purpose, honey! They're fierce, they’re ultra-creative, and we know they make their cities proud.
VIEW THE FULL ITGIRL 100 LIST HERE.
Don’t forget to also check out the ItGirl Directory, featuring 50 Black-woman-owned marketing and branding agencies, photographers and videographers, publicists, and more.
THE ITGIRL MEMO
I. An ItGirl puts on for her city and masters her self-worth through purpose.
II. An ItGirl celebrates all the things that make her unique.
III. An ItGirl empowers others to become the best versions of themselves.
IV. An ItGirl leads by example, inspiring others through her actions and integrity.
V. An ItGirl paves the way for authenticity and diversity in all aspects of life.
VI. An ItGirl uses the power of her voice to advocate for positive change in the world.
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You've Never Seen Luke James In A Role Quite Like This
Over the years, we've watched Luke James play countless characters we'd deem sex symbols, movie stars, and even his complicated character in Lena Waithe's The Chi. For the first time in his career, the New Orleans-born actor has taken on a role where his signature good looks take a backseat as he transforms into Edmund in Them: The Scare—a mentally deranged character in the second installment of the horror anthology series that you won't be able to take your eyes off.
Trust us, Edmund will literally make you do a double take.
xoNecole sat down with Luke James to talk about his latest series and all the complexity surrounding it—from the challenges taking on this out-of-the-box role to the show's depiction of the perplexing history of the relationship between Black Americans and police. When describing the opportunity to bring Edmund's character to life, Luke was overjoyed to show the audience yet another level of his masterful acting talents.
"It was like bathing in the sun," he said. "I was like, thank you! Another opportunity for me to be great—for me to expand my territory. I'm just elated to be a part of it and to see myself in a different light, something I didn't think I could do." He continued, "There are parts of you that says, 'Go for it because this is what you do.' But then also that's why it's a challenge because you're like, 'um, I don't know if I'm as free as I need to be to be able to do this.' Little Marvin just created such a safe space for me to be able to do this, and I'm grateful for everything I've been able to do to lead to this."
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Them: The Scare, like the first season, shines a light on the plight of Black Americans in the United States. This time, the story is taking place in the 1990s, at the height of the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles. While the series presents many underlying themes, one that stands out is Black people and the complicated relationship with the police. "For the audience, I think it sets the tone for the era that we're in and the amount of chaos that's in the air in Los Angeles and around the country from this heinous incident. And I say it just sets the tone of the anxiety and anxiousness that everybody is feeling in their own households."
James has been a longtime advocate against police brutality himself. He has even featured Elijah McClain, the 23-year-old Colorado man who died after being forcibly detained by officers, as his Instagram avatar for the past five years. So, as you can imagine, this script was close to his heart. "Elijah was a soft-loving oddball. Different than anyone but loving and a musical genius. He was just open and wanted to be loved and seen."
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Luke continued, "His life was taken from him. I resonate with his spirit and his words...through all the struggle and the pain he still found it in him to say, 'I love you and I forgive you.' And that's who we are as people—to our own detriment sometimes. He's someone I don't want people to forget. I have yet to remove his face from my world because I have yet to let go of his voice, let go of that being [because] there's so many people we have lost in our history that so often get forgotten."
He concluded, "I think that's the importance of such artwork that moves us to think and talk about it. Yes, it's entertaining. We get to come together and be spooked together. But then we come together and we think, 'Damn, Edmund needed someone to talk to. Edmund needed help... a lot [of] things could have been different. Edmund could have been saved.'
Check out the full interview below.
Luke James Talks Ditching Sex Symbol Status For "Them: The Scare", Elijah McClain, & Morewww.youtube.com
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