Choose one task and actively avoid distractions

[metoc15411]

Now that you're in a good mood, you're definitely good to go, aren't you?

Wrong again!

As many college students—and many real adults—can tell you, the advice to simply avoid procrastinating is completely useless .

Part of this is due to the reason we talked about earlier: lack of motivation. But another reason for procrastination, especially in the age of the Internet, is that there are so many things you can do instead of working.

There are so many cool things you can find on your phone! So many fun coworkers you could chat with! So many other fun tasks you could do!

The first step to helping you overcome the temptation to get distracted is to consciously choose one and only one task to work on.

What the experts say

As Harmon tells his teams, "Unless it's an absolute features of our advertising database emergency involving infrastructure failure, the project you're working on or the task you're working on should be completed first."

It's okay to say "no" to people or projects that are beyond the scope of the task or take up too much of your time. In fact, you can say "no" to interruptions from your teammates and coworkers before they even happen by scheduling distraction-free time.

Lambertini suggests this way to increase productivity:

“When you plan your day or month, set aside specific hours for specific tasks in ‘focus mode.’ When you’re working on these tasks, explain the concept to everyone, and then just put everything else aside. Shut out all distractions and focus on what you’re doing.”

I’ll take Lambertini one step further: Encourage everyone on your team to lock down “focus mode,” preferably at the same time. When everyone has to focus, fewer people will be distracting you. And seeing everyone around you put their heads down and get things done can be motivating.

To truly focus, you must identify your distractions and remove them.

In the digital age, the best place to start is by turning off your phone, email notifications, and any other electronic device that might distract you from your work.

To help you, Lambertini recommends using an app like SelfControl to block access to the website for certain periods of time during the day.

But distractions can come from anywhere, and everyone is distracted differently. Don’t stop at technology. Identify your biggest distractions and confront them head-on.

To do this, Isenegger says that whenever you feel a dip in your productivity, you should:

“Take a break and write down (in your mind or on paper) what’s stopping you from finishing. Are you tired, bored, hungry, unhappy? Is someone blocking your progress? Once you understand what the problem is, take the time and appropriate steps to solve it and get back to work when you’re ready.”

By writing down your distractions as they occur, you can understand which ones occur most frequently and which ones are the most draining on your productivity.

Then develop a plan to overcome them, as Caballero describes:

"I have a food delivery service at my office. Every Monday they deliver my meals for the week so I can make sure lunch is not distracting and is never missed due to work. This helps me stay on track to get everything done in a day."

It’s important to note here that Caballero knew he was being distracted by thoughts of lunch. But he didn’t make the unhealthy choice of skipping lunch entirely to stay on track. He found a solution that included both of his needs: lunch and work.

If lunch is your distraction but you can't go the bread-and-butter route like Caballero, try setting aside time to make your weekend lunches before you come to work.

QUICK TAKEAWAY: The thing is, everyone has something that throws them off track. Maybe you need to block Facebook. Maybe you have a particularly talkative coworker. Or maybe you're overly excited about all the restaurant options in your office.

Whatever distracts you, acknowledge it and then come up with a plan to overcome it.

[yadaysrdone]

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