Sticky notes on the wall
Distractions are everywhere. (If you ever find yourself with time to kill – Google “distractions” and see how many articles/websites/references are available for your time wasting.)
It isn’t always possible to avoid them. Your phone dings or rings, there are people in your life who need things from you urgently, emails come in… you know how it goes. This onslaught of calls for your attention happen every day, all day, whether you want them to or not.
Curiously, if you’re like me, and you’ve got something that you absolutely must get done, distractions are minimized because my attention is held in place by an overriding deadline. It’s when I’m doing something less than fun or not pressing that distractions take their toll.
For a while I tried to avoid distractions. I have put this strategy under “avoid affairs” based on a theory explained to me as such: if you don’t want to have an affair, don’t associate with people with whom you’d have an affair. And it’s absolutely true, if you never associate with people you’d date, then you probably aren’t going to get involved with someone.
BUT… really? First, I think it’s pretty unrealistic to cut out ½ of the population just to avoid making a mistake. Second, isn’t there an underlying issue that would have you make that decision or lead you down that path in the first place?
So, back to my distraction theory… if I’m attempting to avoid distractions entirely, then I’m in a world of hurt, because personally, I could spend an entire day working to create a “distraction free” work environment and still not achieve it. And I haven’t solved the underlying problem that my focus just isn’t able withstand outside distractions. “Avoid” doesn’t work.
I prefer to live around my distractions. I admit that they are there, and I take a two part approach to getting things done that I don’t particularly want to do.
- I admit that there are distractions and I make a deal with myself that if I just do “X” for “this amount of time” (that being some very short amount of time) then I will change tasks. Honestly, I can do almost anything for 15 minutes at a time.
- I think about how what I’m doing is connected to what I’m up to in the world (the bigger picture) and how it will forward my business. If I can’t connect the task to the bigger picture AND how it will contribute to my business, then I don’t do the thing and move on down the list, because it’s not worth it.
It’s usually not a problem any more. I have a free worksheet to help you identify distractions HERE.