“Distraction is a killer of dreams, visions and goals”
Distraction, disturbance, and interruptions all are something that deter our attention from the work we are doing, hence diluting our time with a decrease in efficiency and production.
Distraction is caused by the lack of ability to pay attention, lack of interest in the object of attention, or the great intensity, novelty, or attractiveness of something other than the object of attention. Some common synonyms of distracted are absent-minded, absent, abstracted and pre-occupied
Many individuals can relate to the constant temptation to be distracted, especially while at work. But when you work under tight deadlines, it can significantly decrease your productivity if you are allowing your phone, your co-workers, or other factors to distract you from the tasks at hand. If you want to work at defeating distractions in your job, you’ll want to consider implementing a few of the following strategies.
Set Micro-Deadlines
Even if a project isn’t due until the end of the day, or even if you don’t work within set time constraints, setting micro-deadlines for yourself will help you avoid possible distractions and stay on track with your work. It can be easy to push a task aside if it’s not due until later in the week, but if you make a conscious effort to complete bits of it each day, this can help you stay more focused. Set a goal and give yourself an hour to complete it. This will help you stay committed to that task within that hour because you know you need it done by then.
Avoid Online Distractions
It can be difficult to ward off distractions when you’re working on your laptop or phone. After all, most of the distractions we face are on those devices. When you work online, the internet is at your fingertips, and it can be difficult to avoid the desire to check social media, news sites, your email, and more. The more intentional you are about putting these distractions aside, the easier it will be to avoid getting off course. If you work on your laptop or phone a lot, you might want to consider blocking certain notifications during work hours.
Organize Your Workspace
A scattered workspace might be an indicator that your brain is easily distracted during work. And the more items you have in your workspace means the more distractions that are readily available to you. And cleaning up this mess can turn into a distraction in and of itself. If you find that your workspace has been leading to a distracted mind, take a few minutes at the beginning of your day to straighten things up and declutter. This will help you stay on track with your work tasks throughout the day.
Set Boundaries With Coworkers
Although coworkers often are one of the main reasons that individuals enjoy their workplace, they can also be distracting at times. Whether you work in person or remotely, you have most likely been interrupted by coworkers from time to time, especially while working under strict time constraints. Although it is good to want to be conversational, you also need to know how to set boundaries in order to stay on track for the day. This might look like putting your Skype on “Do Not Disturb” or keeping your office door closed with a note saying when you’ll next be available. It can be tempting to want to talk to your coworkers, but you’ll feel a lot less guilty about doing so once you’ve met your deadline.
By prevailing over all obstacles an distractions, one may unfailingly arrive at his chosen goal or destination
Christopher Columbus
Some people work from home like online tutoring, YouTuber, social media manager, virtual assistant and many more. There are eight tips to beat distractions while working from home. If you are struggling to stay focused and avoid procrastinating, you are not alone. These tricks can help you get back on track.
It’s a who-knows-what day of social distancing and, if you’re like many people, you’re struggling to keep yourself focused.
You may have started this work-from-home experiment with high hopes of calibrating both your work responsibilities and your downtime aspirations, but instead, you’re just plain distracted.
Looking to master your focus and cut out all those remote-work distractions? The following expert tips will steer you in the right direction.
Fighting the urge to multitask, scheduling your time, letting go of what you can’t control, warming up your brain, establishing clear boundaries, knowing your triggers, and turning off your devices for deep focus are the tips to cut out all those remote work distractions.
There are seven proven strategies for overcoming distractions. They put you in distraction-free mode. Set three main objectives every day, give yourself a shorter time frame, monitor your mind wondering, train your brain by making a game out of it, take on more challenging work and break the cycle of stress and distraction.
Don’t let a minor distraction deter you from achieving a major goal. Know what to ignore and what to pay attention to
HOW DO BILLIONAIRES OVERCOME DISTRACTION?
A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro or pounds sterling. Some of the well-known billionaires are Elon Musk ($219 B – United States), Jeff Bezos ($171 B – United States), Bernard Arnault & Family ($158 B – France), Bill Gates ($129 B – United States), Warren Buffett ($118 B – United States), Larry Page ($111 B – United States), Sergey Brin ($107 B – United States) and Larry Ellison ($106 B)
Distractions are everywhere in our daily lives – both in personal and business spheres from texts and phone calls to emails and meetings unexpected interruptions can wreak havoc on productivity.
The more we give in to those distractions, the greater the impact is on our work. That’s why it’s so important to have a strategy for keeping productivity on track. To help and inspire other professionals thirteen members of Forbes Business Council shared the biggest daily distractions in their lives and how they overcome it.
1. ‘Multitasking Moments’
Email, texts, calls—these are “multitasking moments” that cause interruptions. It’s very distracting to me, and even more so when I’m with others that are also being interrupted by their phones. I am learning to block some time off and put my phone in airplane mode for a few hours a day to get some real thinking done. When I’m with others, I also put my phone in airplane mode.
– Robert Isherwood, AMBAC International
2. The Constant Flow Of Email
The constant flow of email, and expectations around responsiveness to emails, is a large distraction in my daily life. Several strategies I use to combat the distraction include: devoting specific times to email (and not first thing in the morning), blocking specific working times where email is closed, and setting boundaries for answering emails past certain hours in the evening.
– Ashley Williams, University of Virginia Darden School of Business
3. Social Media
It is true that social media has brought us closer together, but it has also been designed to distract us. If you create a distraction-free zone for yourself, you can stop yourself from engaging in social media activities. In the beginning, this may seem challenging. Although it takes a little bit of practice, you can master it.
– Kamala Maddali, Deep Lens Inc
4. Myself
My distraction is myself! It is tempting to be all things to all people, emails, and socials. I ask this many times a day: “What is the best use of my time right now?” The key is “right now.” Waiting two minutes for a meeting to begin? Scan email. Need time for strategic planning? Block things that beep. Need downtime? That’s okay. Making a conscious choice takes the pressure off.
– Catherine Mattiske, TPC – The Performance Company
5. Phone Notification Sounds
I’d say a daily distraction is a phone. When I am trying to focus on something and a text or notification comes in, it takes me away from what I was doing. I would recommend at least turning off the ringer. But if that doesn’t work—when you really don’t want your internal cadence interrupted—turn the phone over (turn off vibration mode) and put it inside your desk!
– Whitaker Irvin Jr., Q Hydrogen Commercialization
6. Context-Switching
Multitasking is my biggest challenge. I find myself losing energy and focus while context-switching. Important tasks take a backseat to less important, easier tactical items. To overcome this and build focus I meditate often. Establishing a conscious intent for the day and ruthlessly delegating everything else helps. Taking short breaks to break up the day helps to stay fresh!
– Vikram Ahuja, Talent500
7. Friends And Family
There are always the folks in our environment and lives that have nothing to do and will either call, text, or visit without warning, distracting us from what we need to get done. These people never have to be anywhere or have deadlines but feel bored and want to be entertained by you. Being able to place good boundaries around them will save you from losing time and being distracted.
– Ginny Estupinian, Ginny Estupinian PhD
8. Switching Between Personal And Professional Duties
With the pandemic forcing us into home offices, switching between personal and professional duties during working hours initially diluted my focus. A smart hack has been to print out my daily calendar and put it up on my closed door. Free slots are marked in green and meeting timings in red mean do not disturb. I also use daily objectives and key results (OKRs) by focusing on and monitoring specific and measurable actions.
– Devapriya Khanna, 212° Brand Lab
9. Push Notifications
Our phones buzz once every 12 minutes. Research shows it takes on average 23 minutes to get back to our original levels of focus after each interruption. We don’t decide when to get these interruptions and we can’t turn notifications completely off either. The solution is to batch notifications and check them only at set times of the day, ideally three times a day.
– Ranjan Jagannathan, Synapse Inc (Daywise)
10. Mindless Social Media Scrolling
Today there are so many distractions—if not opportunities—for total information overload. Social media was my distraction until I learned how to maximize it and make it work for me and my company, by growing my network with high-quality connections. Therefore, this changed the negative to a positive, moving from distraction to resource! Determine if the distraction helps or hurts. Focus on the end goal.
– Olivia Friedman, Institute of Higher Global Studies
11. Back-To-Back Meetings
Meetings without time to reflect on the next steps before jumping into another meeting are the biggest distraction to productivity. Our company holds speed meetings, 25 to 50 minutes long, and sticks to a clear end goal of the meeting and agenda. This allows the host to control the meeting and give everyone time to digest action items, take a mental break and prepare for the next one. Less is more.
– Emilia D’Anzica, Growth Molecules
12. HR Tasks
The biggest distraction is usually human resource-related tasks. The best way to combat it is to have a dedicated team member who can help you with this type of task because it can be very time-consuming.
– Dimitri Akhrin, CRMDialer
13. Repetitive Work
Monotony is the anathema of a successful business. Repetitive work leads to disenchantment eventually. The key to building an empire is to always love what you do. How you procure that love for work depends on how exciting and challenging you find it. Push yourself to explore. Move courses around to reach your targets. If you excite your mind and your abilities, the rewards will follow.
– Shakeel Ahmed, Atlas Surgical Group
These are the things that the thirteen leaders have shared about their biggest daily distractions and how they get refocused.
You can’t do big things if you’re distracted by small things
Distraction is time lost first and foremost, focus is the name of the game for all the billionaire entrepreneurs. Distraction means you are losing time by spending it unwisely. Most successful people have achieved their lifetime goals by defeating distractions in their lives. We should always defeat distractions to achieve success, dreams, visions, and goals in our lives. Because distraction is always considered destruction to our ambitions.
Stop getting distracted by things that have nothing to do with your goals
Stay focused, ignore the distractions, and you will accomplish your goals much faster
Joel Osteen
Distraction always results in the destruction of our dreams. By getting some ideas from the speeches given by some famous billionaires about their daily distractions in their lives and how they overcome them, we can also defeat distractions and accomplish our life goals to become successful in the world.
“Defeat distraction. Stay focused”
Omar Fathima Azeeza
