OVERCOMING DISTRACTIONS

Easy Steps To Deal With Distractions

The typical working American gets distracted every 11 minutes, and requires 25 minutes to regain his focus....

Owing to positive feedback we got from our post on steps to excellence, we accepted readers request to say more about distractions, as it’s a real challenge. In this post we look at what distractions generally are, the forms in which they might come, and how to deal with them.

Distraction, according to Wikipedia, is the process of diverting the attention of an individual or group from a desired area of focus and thereby blocking or diminishing the reception of desired information. I would personally define a distraction as whatever pervades your physical or mental senses, enough to prevent you from achieving a desired goal within a desired time frame. You might even end up not achieving your goal at all, especially when there is a stated deadline.

Distractions have made people lose jobs, miss interviews, miss examinations or tests, among other things. On a lighter note, you might even be able to remember when you burnt that food while cooking, or maybe even your favourite shirt, because you were distracted. A sobering reminder though, is that a significant number of deaths and accidents happen daily because people got distracted. It could be an employee on site, it could be a woman cooking at home, it could be a bus driver, or even a surgeon in the theatre.

We all have to deal with distractions daily, and a weak-minded person would be more likely to yield to the temptations of distractions.

Distraction is an exercise of the mind, which is often fuelled by an entry point from the physical senses. When given freedom, it settles in and bears great fruit.

As much as all physical senses can serve as entry points or gates for distractions to set in, the two main gates are the eye gate, and the ear gate.

1. The eye gate

The eye gate is simply your sight organs, yeah, your two eyes. Most of the information we assimilate is fed to our brain through the eyes, and this is especially true for the male gender, ever seen a pretty lady walk past a group of guys having a football argument? This has even shown to be accepted by most advertising agencies, as the focus of advertising campaigns right now is on images and videos trying to capture people’s attention.

Our eyes are programmed to respond to progressive motion around us; a moving car, a flying insect, even the ticking of the clock near you, they all just have a way of getting your attention when the mood is right.

2. The ear gate

What the male gender boasts of in seeing, the female gender boasts of in hearing. The ears make up the other major gate for the entry of information into our brains. Just like at an auction, the ears are naturally attuned to hear the highest bid, the loudest sound around, and while you can control what you see with your eyes to an extent, you have less control over what you hear.

The eyes can only see so far, very few people can see well enough to read beyond a 10 meter radius, but sounds travel uncontrolled. I’m sure you can relate to hearing the sounds of a movie you weren’t watching, or listening to a song you didn’t play, just because someone within your physical space wanted to listen to that.

Major Sources of Distraction

Almost everything can serve as a distraction. In fact, whatever doesn’t help you achieve a goal you’ve set, but instead drags you away from it is a distraction. For further clarification, if you go shopping when you should be doing the laundry, that shopping activity is an unwelcome distraction. That might be going too far though, so let’s return to the major distraction sources, the kind you probably already have in mind.

In our technology focused world, I would choose to broadly group them into on-screen and off-screen distractions, but I’ll just list the subdivisions here:

1. Social media

Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, and more! Over 2 billion people have at least two social media accounts, and over half of them spend no less than 90 minutes daily on them. With trillions of impressions and engagements daily, social media is perhaps the biggest enemy of productivity today, especially among youths.

With an array of posts, tweets, reels, stories, videos, filters, and more, it’s clear that the social media space is the new fun place to be, and the only ones who aren’t exactly distracted by it are those who work there.

2. Games

Another staple consumption among youths, and even the middle-aged today, games on devices, as well as physical games, take just about an hour daily from over 1.5 billion daily.

Whether it’s on a play station device, an xbox, a computer, or even yours truly, a smartphone, people find it very easy to switch off work and just have a little fun with one match, one level, one adventure, then another, then another, and another.

3. Calls

Another major time sucker is calls. It’s very easy for an idle mind to desire to communicate with other people. When the desired people aren’t physically present, they revert to chats and calls. Thanks to VoIP calls (video calls and voice calls), it isn’t uncommon to find people spend four to five hours on calls that do not serve any particularly helpful purpose.

4. Sleep

Are we against sleep? No! Are we against couch potatoes? Yes! The expected number of sleep hours is an average of six hours, a minimum of four hours when you’re pressed for time, and a maximum of eight hours when you’re royalty.

You might however, be tempted to give just a little more time now and then when the motivation to work is low. It isn’t uncommon to find people fall asleep or fight with sleep when they are in office meetings, committing to marathon reading, or even in church.

5. Television

Despite the emergence of smartphones and computers, the television still retains a kind of godfather status when it comes to distracting people. It’s hard to miss out on your favourite program on TV when it’s so close to you, right?

6. Unwanted Visits and Outings

Idle minds again, or weak minds in this case. If you’ve ever had to deal with distractions that were hard to fight, especially as an extrovert, you’ll probably be able to relate to the visit of friends as a strong source of distraction.

It’s not because friends are bad, no. They just do not serve the purpose of your goal and at that point in time, instead of getting them to help you achieve your goal, it’s easier for them to engage you in unnecessary talks, fun, and hang outs (popularly called yawo here in the North)

7. Boredom

It is said that the typical working American gets distracted every 11 minutes, and takes another 25 minutes to settle in to continue the task. We might not have the statistics for Nigeria, but we know that the figures should be close.

With a recessive economy, massive job cuts, and very low pay by employers, workers do not have enough external motivation to stay committed at work. Students who are constantly sent home from schools by strike actions are also affected by boredom. They spend seven years trying to complete a 4-year program, and fail to adequately process the things they are taught. Even before they leave school, there is the persistent dread of graduating into a labour market where there aren’t choice jobs for them.

Dealing Decisively with Distractions 

Having examined the various ways distractions majorly present themselves, let’s look at how to deal with these distractions.

1. Decide to Discipline Yourself

Building focus starts with a decision. You have to make up your mind to be committed to the task you have to accomplish. This isn’t an easy and straightforward process, especially if you’ve not done a task like that for a while. You might need some time to work yourself into some kind of rhythm, build steam and all, but it has to start with a decision to fix your eyes on the prize.

2. Starve your Distractions

There is only so much the human eyes can see. What you see, you become. What you don’t see, you forget. The more time you spend with your distraction, the harder it gets to break out of it. The distraction could even become an addiction if not controlled.

You’ve got to condition yourself to cut off your distractions. If it helps, make a list of the past setbacks you’ve had. Commit yourself to declaring that they would not hinder your progress anymore, and get to work as such.

3. Create a Comfortable, yet Ethical Environment

If you have decided to discipline yourself and starve your distractions, the next step is to condition your environment. You should create an environment that is simple enough to keep you focused and motivated.

Find a spot that has a plain design. Let your work desk be professional, only absolute necessities should be found in that space.

4. Schedule your Tasks Before Time

It is said that he who fails to plan, plans to fail. It is hard to follow up with impromptu plans, especially when they are a spur of the moment thing. Chances are that you will either forget them or not prioritise them enough to command your commitment.

Get a to-do list for your goals and pin them in a visible location. If they are long term goals, let your planning be at least weeks ahead. If they are short term, especially daily tasks, schedule them for a day before the task is due.

5. Set Smaller Goals

Research has shown that in getting things done, routines are more important than big dreams. Just as large houses are made up of bricks, so it is with your goals. Break them into tiny units and faithfully carry them out. You will find yourself growing gradually and becoming better equipped at your tasks.

Like a wise man said, start by doing the necessary, then do the possible, and soon you’d find yourself doing the impossible.

6. Use Visual Reminders

Don’t leave tasks in your head! Write them down! The brain forgets, memory only serves for so long. Writing down your tasks and goals, and making them time bound helps you regain your focus faster whenever distractions set in.

7. Engage in Productive Recreational Activities

Blowing off steam is good, but if you blow off all the steam, it might take a while getting the train running again. It is very fine to take out time to rest or take a break at scheduled times, but this should be done moderately.

When you are still working on a task, let your recreational activities passively remind you that there is still work to do, and if you can, try to do some brainstorming while at it.

You could listen to music, take a walk, or play simple games like Ludo, Scrabble, Whot, Sudoku, or even Checkers.

There it is. I guarantee that if you apply what you’ve read here, distractions would have little to no control over you. So, go ahead, be the boss you should be, and as usual, we’ve got you!

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