7 Tips to Become Distracted

I’m going to be honest with you. There was a time I would get easily distracted and struggled to even get back to being productive. Fortunately, the following habits have allowed me to combat that and to ultimately succeed in the long run.

If you are someone who is distracted easily, then you might find this information incredibly useful. At the very least, it will allow you to better understand certain types of behavior.

1- Fragmented Attention

Your attention is one of the most valuable things you have. When a person spends their time jumping from the phone, to e-mail, to text messages, and then back to the computer for Twitter and Facebook, nothing is accomplished in the day. These interruptions in our life take away from our day and the curiosity usually doesn’t help us to accomplish everything we need to.

In time, we begin to see these distractions become a force of habit. Soon, we are unable to focus on what we need to do, because there is a drive to accomplish something else. This makes our minds grow weaker, and we struggle to break free of the grasp these items have on us.

This is why we need to focus on our attention being something that we need to strengthen. This is done gradually over a period of time so we are distracted less, and we are able to build up our willpower. This is something that like a muscle improves in time, but can also be depleted. With it you have the chance to:

Turn your distractions into rewards. Keep these temptations at bay, so when you do give in to them later on in the day, they are a treat, rather than a time wasting distraction that prevents you from getting things done.

Set blocks on time, so you aren’t abusing it. Try starting slow with 15 minutes of meaningful work allowing you 5 minutes to check out whatever online, without guilt. That way, you are increasing the amount of work you do. You can then build it up to 30 minutes of meaningful work followed by 5 minutes of being distracted with random things online.

2- Confused Priorities

When you begin to ignore things and easily become distracted, you lose track of the things that matter the most over the course of the day. It might start off simple, like you forgot to pay a bill or you missed our getting something important done. Over time, you begin to ignore bigger items and an entire day can pass where you are distracted and not getting the things done you need to. Fortunately, there are solutions to this. When you start to realize you are slipping down the rabbit hole and becoming distracted, force yourself to begin a task. It will take a few minutes to get back on track, but once you get into the swing of things again, you’ll be on the road to success.

3- No Routine Systems In Place

One of the best things you can do with routine items to help you from getting too distracted to do them, is to create a system. This might be checking work e-mails several times a day, paying your bills the moment they come in, or whatever needs to be done to ensure that you aren’t putting yourself into a difficult position.

Another choice is to cut down on the biggest time wasters you have in your life. Are the posts you making on social media relevant to anything, or are they something to do when you are distracted? As you begin to go through these items, you can find something that will better utilize your time, so that you are more successful along the way. Remember, there is a mental strength that is required for doing this, so don’t become too frustrated if it takes you some time to accomplish this.

4- The Un-Finishing Habit

When our attention is divided and there are frequent interruptions, we don’t accomplish the things we are supposed to.

We have all experienced this at some point and it is an annoying and sometimes painful experience, especially when we realized we are getting distracted over trivial things. The best way to do this is to pick up a few items and push through them until we are done. Don’t doubt what you’re doing or the decisions you make, that way, you don’t run into a situation where you are left struggling at the end.

5- Not Committing

When you decide to commit to something, you should give it all your energy, devotion and time. If you become distracted, then you are not committed to it. Stop messing around with trying to prioritize and procrastinate so it leads to wasted time. Instead, begin something and work on it until you complete it, or drop it if you can’t seriously get behind it.

6- Procrastination Mastery

It’s obvious you are distracted when you continue to be plagued with the same items on your list. You’ll want to take the time to avoid getting into this situation. As you put things off and tell yourself that you’ll do them later, you’ll find a time comes when you haven’t gotten to that point and it just leads to problems. Be sure to eliminate your resistance and do what you can to succeed.

7- Overwhelm Addiction

Everything mentioned above about being distracted leads to a feeling of being overwhelmed. That is when there is too much to do and there isn’t the time to do it. When we have too many distractions, all of that becomes a possibility.

Even when we hide that we are overwhelmed, it still dominates our solutions and fogs up the way we think. We take a feast or famine approach to things and this can lead to additional stress and the feeling of being overwhelmed. You need to combat that feeling and do all that you can to avoid getting into a situation where this becomes your dominating force.

To summarize things so that you have a better understanding of them, keep the following items in mind.

• Do what you can to make it harder for you to become distracted at home or at work. This means turning off notifications, blocking websites that will prevent you from working, and addressing toolbars as needed.

• Always prioritize your tasks, so you are doing critical things first. You can reward yourself in small chunks to keep you moving forward and to avoid becoming overwhelmed with everything you need to do.

• Increase the amount of time you devote to projects by 15 minute intervals. This will help you to boost your productivity and help you to break away from long periods of the day being devoted to being distracted instead.

• Try to simplify things so you aren’t overcomplicating tasks and stressing yourself out.

• Take action and keep repeating the action, until you are successful.

• Work daily on all projects and work on building your momentum. This allows you to deliver better work faster, and gives you time to address any mistakes that you might accidentally make.

• Don’t let go of the fight. Instead, realize that this is essential for you to continue to push forward. Yes, you will need to explore the different approaches you should take, but you will ultimately succeed with everything that is necessary for you to do. All while combating the distractions that appear in your life.

Gregg Swanson is a peak performance consultant and human potential coach and has authored several books and numerous articles on peak performance. Gregg specializes driven individuals that have a burning desire to achieve their full potential including entrepreneurs, sales professionals and athletes.  You can pick up your free eBook, ”Why Change is So Hard” by going HERE.