Oh wait…
Hang on…
Just got a text…
Ok, wait…where were we?
Oh yeah…I want to talk a little about distractions.
When we get busy, it feels like we just don’t have enough time in the day to get everything done. The clock moves faster, and we just wish for that one day when we can get “caught up” and focus.
I’ve been spending quite a bit of time listening and trying to learn about my work environment over the last couple of months. From Marie Kondo’s Joy at Work and Sam Bennett’s Get It Done, to Taren Sartler’s Tick Tock it’s About Time group—I’m here to tell you that your phone and email are the culprit of your distractions and you’re their victim.
The research is clear. In order to take control of our attention and focus, we need to make some changes. Here’s what I’m doing:
- Planning my day the night before.
- No social media the second I wake up.
- Starting my work with the highest priority project right away. Even before checking my email.
- Speaking of email—I’m keeping it closed so I don’t check it every five minutes.
- I killed all my notifications. Email dings, Chrome messages, Slack pings—they are all just invitations to stop what I’m doing and divert my attention.
- Putting my phone out of sight. Just seeing your phone makes you feel like you are missing something. It’s just begging you to pick it up and see what’s going on. So I set it on the table behind my workspace and set it to do not disturb.
That’s it. I’m hoping with a little strategy and some of these tactics, I can feel more in control and less scattered.