How can I stay focused at work when I’m overwhelmed by other things in life?

Q: How can I stay focused at work when I’m overwhelmed by other things in life?

A: This is all of us today isn’t it? It feels impossible to think about anything else than the election news.

But this isn’t just a problem once every four years. Life is always distracting. If it’s not the steady stream of drama and tragedy served up in your news feed, it’s all the mess of regular life: kids, parents, money, partners, health. The idea that work and life can be separated is a fallacy. But in order to get things done, there do need to be some moments of shutting the rest of the world out.I’ve covered how to improve your attention span, but if you feel your mind pulled back again and again to an issue in your personal life or the world at large, there are a few other tactics you might want to take.Time management coach and Fast Company contributor Elizabeth Grace Saunders suggests writing down everything that’s on your mind and highlighting where you can take action. The outcome of the election? Out of your control. Saving for retirement and your kid’s college? Something you can make a plan about.

Once you identify the things you can do something about, Saunders advises adding those your task list or calendar, so that you can consistently make progress. “Making changes to improve your situation is a healthy and helpful way to use your nervous energy, instead of simply distracting yourself on your phone,” she says.And speaking of your phone, if the news is causing you to doom scroll, you may want to enlist the help of a blocker (like Freedom.to) to go on a temporary news blackout. It doesn’t have to be a permanent block. You can set times to check the news, with limits.Finally, in the same way that planning to take action on personal issues can help ease the burden on your mind, channeling your anxiety around larger world issues can help, too. There are always ways to donate time or resources to those in need, or ways to get involved in political causes that are important to you.Here’s some more advice on how to stay focused in trying times:

• How can I improve my attention span?
• How to stay focused when everything feels stressful and overwhelming
• Getting work done in a world of distraction
• How to find (or regain) focus, no matter where you work