Is distraction the new distraction? Confusing Huh?
So what do I mean by that?
We can now access other people’s lives 24/7 via social media bombardment and multiple communication platforms. This means we are more easily distracted than ever before.
Distraction used to come in the form of phone calls, food and chatting at the coffee machine. Now we have the added nuisance (or is it?) of phones that continuously beep or emails from 3 accounts repeatedly reminding us that we have an upcoming meeting or it’s sports day next week.
In addition, more people work from home, so we can get called away from our desks by the washing machine beeping or the postman. We tear our hair out because hours have passed but we can only charge for two, due to the addictive nature of social media and everyday distractions. Because of all these easy disruptions, avoiding distraction has become a new distraction. “Turn it off”, “put it away” “go to another room”. All these avoidance tactics are in themselves a distraction, so hence my initial point.
Below are Purple Patch’s top tips for keeping more focussed and with practice might just become habit.
* Tidy desk, tidy mind. Use intrays, drawers, filing systems.
* To Do Lists and Management Tools. Write your muddled thoughts on paper, diarise or use a tool like Trello for a more organised work life.
* Have social media free hours. Put your phone in another room and allow yourself a short dedicated social media break every two – four hours. Try and go longer each week so you could even end up with social media free days.
* Re-train your brain to be able to function longer without stimulation. Our attention spans are shorter than ever. We need to reconnect with ourselves and our surroundings. In your spare time try meditation, yoga, walking or just listen to your favourite album – and I mean just that – not whilst scrolling through Facebook on your tablet at the same time.
* Don’t multi-task. To stay focussed you need to concentrate on one thing at a time where at all possible. Use Freedom, an app blocking app (yes really) to stop your most frequent and favourite time-wasting apps or sites from pulling you in.
* Take a break. If you have been working on a task for a long time you might need to stretch your legs and clear your mind. Go outside, get a drink or walk around for a bit to calm your thoughts. This often improves productivity.
* Go somewhere quiet to work. If you are surrounded by noise or visible distractions, then move yourself away for a while. Shared workspace, radios or other people can make concentration harder.
* Look after yourself. Eat well and exercise regularly.
* Avoid too much caffeine, alcohol or sugar and eat healthily.
* Get enough sleep, as one thing that will most certainly impact negatively on your work, is being tired. Treat yourself to an early night at least once a week. This may seem indulgent, but it is good for you and all those around you.
Whilst all the above is simple effective advice, it is also a fact that the very nature of much of our work in modern times, means we want to be distracted. Staring at computers all day, sitting down for long periods and not having to move very far to find out information, makes our work less interesting than those of our ancestors. If you have a sedentary repetitive job, you might find it even harder to resist a little light entertainment on your phone. If this is the case, you might need to move about more and break you day up. Hopefully your employer can be understanding. If you work for yourself you will need to be disciplined.
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