What could be easier than getting distracted in this day and age?
TVs, cell phones, video games, iPods, Blackberries, pagers, instant messengers, and every other gadget and gizmo conceivable is at our beck and call. Yet with all of these devices that are designed to make us more effective and save us time, we have far less time available than we did 10, 15 or 20 years ago.
Why? Because it is a two-way street. While a gadget might save you X amount of time on the front end, it requires the same amount of time or sometimes more of maintenance and upkeep on the back end.
How can we possibly achieve what we want out of life is there is something else there of minimal value to take us off-track?
I am just as much a victim of this as anyone else. Taking a distraction-free day off is difficult. Going on vacation is as difficult as well. There is always something there to pull me back into work or to get me thinking about what I “need to do”.
Even though it is a struggle, I do get away. I do get things done.
The plan is to decrease my reliance on these devices. And spending necessary time away from them. Since him to a little and an A+ blogger is part of my personal goal plan, I do have the distractions of the computer and Internet breathing down my neck. Add in my career choices as CIO as well as programmer and I’m further tied to the computer.
But I know that distractions are the leading cause of my setbacks. If I cannot get a solid period of time in on my various projects, they are destined to fail or at least generate luke-warm results.
So how does a well-connected, digital age person supposed get things done when there’s always someone knocking on the door, a phone ringing in the right ear and a flashing text message on the screen?
The first step in getting rid of your distractions is discovering them.
If you take a pot of boiling water and throw a frog into it, he’ll jump out. But if you take a cold pot of water put it on the stove and put the frog and it you can slowly turn up the heat and he won’t realize he’s being boiled to death until it’s too late.
I think it’s the same with distractions. We gradually have been given more devices, more networks of connections, more requirements, and it has been a gradual progression. We are all boiling but the heat was turned up so gradually we didn’t realize it was coming.
So the first step in getting rid of these or at least scaling them back is to recognize what they are! Like an alcoholic has to admit he’s an alcoholic before healing can begin, distract-a-holics must admit they have a probllem too.
Seeing your distractions is an easy task. For the next five or 10 minutes, turn off your computer, TV, radio, cell phone and anything else electrical it may be or call your attention away, close and lock the door. Sit still, and make a list of every electronic gadget or human distraction you encounter on a daily basis.
This is tip #11 of the 31 day series 101 Goal Setting Breakthroughs: A 31 Day Blog Series That Will Make 2008 Your Best Year Ever! Subscribe to my free RSS feed to get the rest of the series and never miss a tip!
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