Increase Attention/Awareness..?

[Uncover]

Hi, 

Firstly, I apologize for my poor English, I'm not a native. Now, I have a job that demands a consistent degree of attention. In the morning I would start working with attention and interest. However, after some time, especially in the afternoon, I would enter on autopilot. I'm doing everything automatically. My work now consists largely of booking invoices. The problem is that I make mistakes quite often. Like, I don't observe that the invoice has two VAT quotes. Or, I don't notice that the account I used to book the invoice was corrected before. Or, that the invoice must be activated because it has a large amount. Or that it must be accrued. These are just some examples. My boss is really angry that I make mistakes so often. I am also angry at myself. Because I know all these things but I simply miss taking everything into account sometimes. Maybe is even because I get tired after some time, or I get hungry, especially in the afternoon. The problem might also be that I'm not excited in what I'm doing. I'm doing it just because it must be done. 

My mind just drifts away after a little time when I start working. I enter autopilot mode.  Actually I can't keep my attention on anything for a longer period of time. I start thinking about something else. What'll have for dinner, what to buy for my girlfriend's birthday, where to take her out. All kinds of random stuff,  just not on what I'm doing. Maybe my phone also contributed to my poor concentration. How can I keep my attention fully on what I'm doing? Well, that's actually not possible. But, how can I become more aware? 

Gratefully,

Uncover

[Zigzag Idiot]

4 hours ago, Uncover said:

How can I keep my attention fully on what I'm doing? Well, that's actually not possible. But, how can I become more aware? 

A simple yet powerful practice is to sense the feet.  Just sensing the physicality of the feet.

When I'm stuck in my head my attention is usually dispersed over several different things leaving my awareness ungrounded 

The feet are good because of all the many nerve endings in the feet. By putting attention on the body and not creating a narrative in the mind about it, the sensing will help ground the attention through the body cultivating a better balanced awareness. Being more grounded in the body, it becomes easier to observe and separate thoughts and feelings and how often they come out of a stimulus response from random things. The more one practices body sensing, the more sensitive the body becomes. Instead of narrative consciousness the mind can just be registering sense data more than the internal dialog of narrative consciousness. 

Along with this, relaxing the small muscles in the face several times a day is good as well as being mindful of one's posture as much as possible. These are practices out of the Fourth Way.

[Truth Addict]

5 hours ago, Uncover said:

Maybe is even because I get tired after some time, or I get hungry, especially in the afternoon.

That's probably the answer. Have you tried taking a 15 minutes break for having a little snack?

[Jamesc]

How do you become more aware? There is no easy answer but you want to realize you will be becoming more and more of an extremist. Having a higher sense of reality requires experiencing a more full in-depth perception of what everyone goes through. Thich Naht Hahn said it is niether full, nor empty. Good luck

[JustThinkingAloud]

I’d try to do the tricky work first while I still have my focus and then do the easy work when I’m more tired.