According to a study conducted by the University of California Irvine, office workers are only able to focus on any single task for an average 3 minutes before they’re distracted. And to my surprise, people interrupt themselves almost as much as they are interrupted by external sources. Internal distractions account for 44 percent of our interruptions! Since there are a number of costs to being distracted - cognitive costs (loss of flow), mental health costs (increased stress), and productivity costs (missed deadlines) - our overall well-being will improve by taking time to implement strategies to fight distraction!
Start with a vision:
Determine what your overriding focus is by creating a vision. This can be a few sentences or you could try using an acronym. I have taken the word “LIVE” to define my vision this year: Love. Intention. Value-based Decisions. Energizers. Then as you are trying to decide if an action is worth taking, you can run it past your vision. Does this show others’ love? Am I acting out of intention? Is this a value-based decision or a fear-based decision? Does this action energize me and/or others? We can be great at getting stuff done, but what if we are just filling time?!?
Intentionally Create the Environment:
Think through what you need in order to stay focused, and put energy into setting up your environment. Do you need white noise, silence (sound blocking headphones), sun light coming in through a south window, shades down and a focused desk light…? Take time to design a setting that works for you.
As part of setting up your environment turn off your notifications! This will have a huge impact in keeping you focused!! It is so hard to stay on task if you have sounds prompting you to visit Facebook, check your email, or reply to a text. This simple action was a game changer for me!
Make a plan with family and/or coworkers, so that there is understanding about what each person needs in order to best focus. We live in a small house and have three people working from home currently, so we have divided up the space to identify each person’s work zone, figured out strategies to communicate do-not-disturb times, and split up tasks in order to conquer duties. If you are working from home, identify “work free zones”, and repurpose your commute to personal time, family breakfast, workout etc.
set boundaries around communication:
To set communication boundaries, start with keeping your work email off of your phone. Then set an autoresponder for your email that thanks the person for reaching out and lets them know when you will be checking email. Finally, divert all social media questions to your email in order to narrow the funnel. Choosing your main form of communication will be hugely beneficial!
Be Strategic with Accessibility:
Working on blog with my water handy!
Positive psychologist Shawn Achor believes that 20 seconds can make all the difference when it comes to behavior change. Simply by making tasks slightly easier or slightly harder we will impact the likelihood of a behavior occurring. If something takes us 20 seconds longer to do, we’re less likely to do it, so put those cookies in the car (or how about leave them at the store?!). And on the other hand, fill your water bottle and have it handy, so that you can increase the likelihood you experience the benefits of staying hydrated. With the 20 Second Rule, we do not have to rely on willpower in order to stay focused!
Define The Target Focus:
Instead of seeing what our “inbox tells us to do today”, Brendon Burchard encourages us to value our time more by identifying criteria (with your vision in mind) for what we plan to do and saying no in order to say yes to what truly matters. By doing this we narrow and strengthen our focus! Also, focus goes out the window when we don’t make progress, so by staying focused on that very small minimum-but-meaningful task we build momentum. I like to use a three item to-do list, which simple involves asking myself, “If I could only get three things done today, what would be most important?”
Batch and Block Your Responsibilities:
In the excellent webinar, From Crisis to Calm, this three step strategy is described:
List All Responsibilities
Use Highlighters to Categorize What Belongs Together (BATCHING)
Schedule the Time to Work on Your Batches (BLOCKING)
When you are working on a scheduled category, keep your responsibilities list handy so that you can add to it when thoughts come your way! Also, make sure you do your “batch work” during the time of the day you do tend to do your best work. This will save you from heading down rabbit trails.
set deadlines (pomodoro Technique):
The Pomodoro Technique, by Francesco Cirillo, uses a timer to break down work into intervals, typically 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks. This strategy is especially helpful for times we can’t get ourselves motivated to complete a task. Time pressure is motivating, so it is a great way to get the ball rolling. Keep in mind, there are no Pomodoro Police watching so if we find ourselves in a state of flow we can keep working as we wish! I just ordered some fun brightly colored sand timers to help me apply this strategy, because then if I get rolling I won’t have a timer go off that stops me (Check them out using this associates link here!)
What strategies help you avoid distractions?!
In this post, most of the blue words are additional videos on the topic. for some more ideas check out this great video!
Wendy Dellis is a certified wellness coach. She joins years of training and work in the area of behavior change, experience as a fitness instructor and run club coordinator with a passion for adventure and people. She lives in Minnesota with her husband, Jay, and two sons.
I am running with friends using FaceTime these days! Covid-19.
The information contained on this page is for general information purposes only. Nothing here should be construed as medical or healthcare advice, but only topics for discussion. No physician-patient relationship exists; please consult your physician before making changes in diet or lifestyle.