Distractions Are Yours to Manage

Outstanding thoughts! Will share this with my fellow students and professors. Thanks for some great insight.

Great post for consideration as we approach 2011 and the start of a New Year, Chris. I absolutely have to time-block things. I only check social media certain times of day, I block out time for writing (book, blog, etc), and I schedule in time for the clients I work with (usually based on their schedules). Most importantly, I make time for my family.

Not everything is as important as it seems. It is up to us to decide how we want to handle those things that crop up!

You rock, Chris!

I think the hardest thing for people to do with distractions is make decisions. Decide to turn off the email, or the phone, or the Twitter, and get to work. I find myself more productive when I don’t have access (self-imposed). I find that I often haven’t missed much when I do.

I watched a TED X talk last night that was about information. It said in the previous gerations children had to go to school to get information. This generation is radically different with books in the home, the internet and information on the phone as you say. You don’t even need to go to school to learn anymore!

I suppose this means we need to be more responsible, more aware of information overload and managing time. Your point on time is more relevant than any other time in history. I think I am somewhere between Setting Limits and Owning My Life. Ultimately I feel I have disipline and regard this as my most important quality.

Dara

I like how you point out how much is competing for our attention and the reminder that ultimately we own our own time & lives.

This post reminds me of the main point of Stever Robbins’ book 9 Steps to Work Less and Do More, which is “The key to working less is being on purpose.”

One way to be more productive and eliminate distractions, he suggests, is to group tasks by focus: content focus versus task focus.

So, that means I take care of all my “content” tasks (that is mostly writing in my case, applications, blog posts, articles, e-mail etc.) in one working session, and then switch to a task focus, with similarly grouped activities (errands, chores, etc.), in a different burst of working energy.

I follow this rhythm when I’m working on site as well (writing versus interviewing someone, learning a new tool, or testing functionality), but even more so when I’m working independently.

Following some sort of routine is key for me to staying on track.

Okay, this may seem silly, but my biggest take-away from this post is the revelation that one can rise from dropping out of college ( I managed to do that a few times!) and still achieve a level of greatness and impact the world around them. Maybe, for some of us, it was just a matter of growing up some more… Great post and very instructive pointers – especially the “no TV” suggestion. Would that more people took this advice.

I have two pronged problem of not only distractions but also interruptions. Interruptions is an easy one to tackle and that is simply shutting down skype, and email. For distractions shutting down facebook / twitter and listening to groove salad or classical music streams.

I appreciate your take on this issue. We “own” our distractions. I am a big believer in personal ownership. We own our choices! It’s the one thing ALL of us have access to, and the one thing that shapes our life. We can choose to be distracted or not! Good word Chris!

Your third paragraph says it so well: “You own this life.” I think that’s really what it boils down to – we choose the contents of our lives.

For me, it’s both sobering and empowering. It means I get to take inventory of my life. I need to consider the amount of time I’ve dedicated to certain activities. I need to figure out which things are holding me back and which ones are propelling me forward.

Again, as you said, “It’s up to you to decide how to eliminate reasons for failure…” I’m not a victim of circumstance; I have choices. I’ve been given the opportunity to discover and eliminate the distractions that are causing me to fail. This is a good thing. Thanks for the reminder.

Chris, great post! We are bombarded constantly by distractions. In my industry, clients expect immediate attention/replies. So, I have to be careful how I balance my “noises off” time. But, I have to do it in order to be productive and provide the level of attention that my clients do deserve. As a self-employed business person, I realize that the only person that kicks me in the pants everyday is myself. So, I have to be sure to buckle down and do what needs doing. I’m responsible for my productivity, bottom line, and ultimately… short comings.

A few things that I found helpful in managing my time:
1. Changing my outgoing voice mail greeting to tell callers when I’ll be availalbe to return calls. Especially helpful when I am with a client–that’s their time. After 6pm, my calls go to voice mail so I can concentrate on final wrap ups at the office and/or quality time at home. I do check in and handle issues. But, it’s eliminated the 1am calls that wake me up because someone is on the internet looking for information. I’m not on call 24/7 nor can I be.
2. At home, I’m 100%. I leave work worries at work. Home is where I rejuvenate and recover.
3. TV? What’s that? People think I’m strange but I haven’t had TV or Cable in years. It allows me to pursue hobbies, reading, communicating with family & friends.
4. Time chunking: I put on my calendar schedule chunks of time that I handle email, twitter, social media, writing etc. It’s timed so that I’m alerted when I need to disengage and move to the next time chunk. It’d be too easy to time warp day away.
5. I learned to say “no” and stick to it. I was accepting way to many obligations, committments, responsibilities that were important but not my prime passions. Now, I weigh what I want to commit my time to and pursue those passionately. I get more fulfillment out of the choice and benefit that committment more fully.
6. Minimizing colleague interruptions at work: I’ve set expectations with a few colleagues who were constantly asking “do you have minute?” that when I am working, I am working. I put on my headphones as a visual signal not to disturb me. If they still do, I try to schedule another time to address their issues. I am amazed at how this one thing has captured so much more time at the office for me.

This is right in line with something I’m hoping to do a better job of this year – being in the moment. Having a phone that does everything (even if I only have it set to ring/vibrate for calls/texts) has made some of the social networking, gaming, whatever too easy to pick up and distract me. I’m also a no-TV person – not because I don’t enjoy it, but I enjoy reading and writing more. Thanks for the post – it just helped me to re-affirm that I’m on the right track.

Food for thought, in the near future we will be living in more of an artificial Intelligent world. I wonder if at some point there will be a crossing of our mental needs, time and Ai simplifying and or expediting our lives for us?

Funny that I read this today! I became a father today and I realize how distracting it can be when everyone is asking for information all day long.

I think I should have silenced all alerts except for voice. On one side I was happy of all the great wishes from everyone but it distracted me from all the tasks I had at hand.

I have never been a fan of TV (might be the reason the only TV I Own is not a flat screen tv) but I guess know being a father will involve in having valid distractions from my daughter.

These tips really give me the opportunity to adjust to make sure I really work on my priorities.