Do you often find yourself getting distracted when you are trying to get some work done? Do you work for a few minutes only to find yourself reaching out for your phone buzzing, switching between different applications or suddenly remembering something else that you felt compelled to do right away?
Yes, it is the age of distraction. It is hardly your fault or mine when there are hundreds of cognitive and behavioural scientists writing algorithms and content to capture our attention. Getting your attention is mega business, and very often we all are unconsciously victimised and feel distracted.
Before you know, the hour has passed, the day has passed and you find yourself being sucked into social media, meetings, whatsapp chats and many things that distract you from the work you had planned. And you feel tired despite nothing real to show for it.
Is there a way out of this? Yes, there is always a way provided you have the will.
Question 1: Do you really intend to be less distracted and enhance your focus?
The first step for you is to check-in with yourself with a a key question of intent.
Ask yourself, “Do I want to focus and concentrate better?”
or
“Do I find it a convenient to use the excuse of distractions to explain my low energy and productivity?”
These are hard questions, but also critical questions.
Be honest with yourself, you can reduce distractions if your take a conscious decision to bring more focus in your life.
Question 2: Where are you aligned? FOMO or JOMO?
Fear of Missing Out or FOMO is a commonly used phrase. We all know how or what this means and have experienced it at some point in our life. One of the critical reasons, you may keep checking their phone /email /insta or FB account is because you fear you will miss out on something if you don’t check in. Perhaps you have missed meetings or parties because you didn’t check notifications or emails on time.
Did you know there is Joy of Missing Out (JOMO) too?
Try this for a week at least and if possible, for a month to really experience JOMO.
There is a lot of joy in just being with yourself and doing things in flow with no disturbance.
Set up a flow time of 1 to 2 hours everyday and put your gadgets or silent.
Tell your colleagues and family members. Select a time that is reasonably quiet at your workplace or home and where you are neither too tired or hungry.
Sit down to do a task or activity and see how you flow when you don’t have messages or people bumping into you. Each time the thought of checking your phone or email emerges, silence it and get back to your chosen activity. Do this repeatedly for a few days. Give yourself the luxury of working in flow.
Most likely, you will experience JOMO or the Joy of Missing Out. A zone where you are happy and content and in flow with your chosen work in your chosen time.
Now, make a conscious decision to align higher with the Joy of Missing Out. Start removing activities or unsubscribing to channels that don’t prove worthy of your time. This will inevitably remove many distractions from your life organically over weeks or months.
Question 3: Do you schedule time to be distracted?
If your ambition was to become a saint and live in a secluded space, you can stop with enhancing JOMO. But for most of us, we need to keep up with events, meetings, learning committees, social gatherings, or just pure entertainment.
Decide a time slot when you check emails and messages and respond to them. This could be 5 to 10 minutes every couple of hours, or it could be a longer activity a few times in a day. You know this best based on your role and profile.
Think this through and work through it mindfully. It often helps to experiment with a couple of ways before you decide what works well for you. If others are dependent on your responses and direction, consult them on this change so you are able to support them too.
Question 4: Do you need to review what you define as a distraction?
A repeated distraction right now may be a clue to what you are not focusing on enough.
If you find you are constantly distracted by a text from specific individuals, or your family, or a specific task, then maybe it is not a distraction. Maybe you need to attend to it before you proceed to any other task.
Maybe you need to focus more there and stop seeing them as distractions. So do check your perspective and definition of what constitutes as a distraction.
Question 5: Are you patient with yourself to grow from Distracted to Focused?
Do you often belittle yourself and think focus is not for you? Do you try for a few days and then give up?
You can’t go straight from distracted to high concentration in one day. It takes time and conscious working on yourself.
So be patient and work at it consistently. It’s ok to restart many times, it is not ok to stop trying and be victimized by the world of distractions.
Build a routine or work towards inculcating focus and concentration.
Say “no” to a world filled with distractions. Find your rhythm. Build the concentration muscle.
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