The Only Way I Can Focus

Focus, focus, focus.

I know. I talk about it a lot. And I try to keep myself doing throughout the day.

But in order to keep myself focused, I have to make the time and space for my distractions too.

Say whaaaat?

Yes, in fact distractions motivate my ability to stay focused. To concentrate. And to get into the flow of what I’m doing. Here’s how you can make this work too.

Step #1:

Make a list of all the things you get distracted by, that take your attention away from what you know you should be doing. In other words, time wasters. Let me help you get this started with my own list.

• FB
• Articles
• Blogs
• Pinterest
• Amazon
• LinkedIn
• House Projects
• News Alerts

Step #2:

Schedule 5-15 minutes for ONE of these types of distractions AFTER you’ve scheduled and completed 30-60 minutes of a non-time wasting task. In other words, after you’ve worked on a priority for a focused period of time.

Step #3: 

SET A TIMER. I think I need to repeat this one. SET A TIMER.

Set a timer for your allocated distraction time. (5, 10 or 15 minutes). If you don’t set a timer, you know what happens. Your well intentioned 10 minutes turns into one hour and then you wonder where the time went and why you haven’t gotten anything done! (Trust me, I have mastered this skill).

Scheduling and budgeting time for your favorite distractions will help you avoid wasting time on it now.

Using FB as a reward for getting through 50 minutes of work, will help you stay motivated and on task.

But without boundaries around our distractions, or worse, not creating dedicated time for them at all, they interrupt our thoughts and progress, moment-by-moment. The constant disruptions significantly lower productivity as our mind jumps back and forth between multiple tasks.

Additionally, social media, online shopping and browsing can be addicting and an easy saboteur of time. They keep us away from the things we really should be doing — for really long periods of time.

I don’t know about you, but the last time I tried to rely on willpower to stop my online addiction, I spent more time on my time waster than on my main work.

Thus I’ll say it again. Schedule your distractions and USE A TIMER.

Ok, so if you’re shaking your head in agreement, don’t simply move on to your next email without taking a quick action. Follow these next steps.

#1: Think about what your next distraction be.

#2: Put time (5-15 minutes) for it on your schedule right now. (Like after you focus for the next 40 minutes).

#3: Get your timer ready so your 10 minutes of distraction time doesn’t turn into 30.

Easy peasy.

Need another accountability tool? Let me know in the comments below that you did this. I promise to check back in with you to see how it worked.

Here’s to getting more of the right things done!

Xo,
Mridu