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Ever find yourself mindlessly scrolling social media when you should be making calls? Is a little idle office chitchat stealing your mojo when you could be finalising your next marketing campaign?
Or do you easily get sucked into the latest workplace drama when you should be focused on your pipeline and planning for the next three months?
Each of these is a classic case of ‘distraction’ where your energy and efforts end up directed at the wrong place, at the wrong time, and at the expense of productivity.
Sure, distractions happen and occasionally they’re real and warranted. But what if distraction becomes a habit that’s costing you momentum in your career?
It starts from within
We often blame external sources and events when it comes to being distracted.
Chances are you can quickly recall at least a couple of ways you’ve done that over recent days – that phone call you had to answer, that email you had to reply to, or that drama that required your instant and full attention.
However, the reality is distraction starts from within.
So, why are we prone to distraction?
One common answer is technology. After all, it’s all around us, demanding our time with its notifications, pop ups, constant binging and frequent ringing.
Yep, it’s very demanding, and we live in a world that is constantly ‘on’. But if you’ve ever tried to give up your digital devices and gadgets, you’ll know limiting the time you spend on tech doesn’t necessarily stop you from procrastinating.
Even without technology begging for your attention, the likelihood is you will still find a way to avoid a task you don’t feel like doing and divert your focus to something else.
See, our brains are masters at inventing forms and reasons for distraction.
What’s your trigger?
Distraction is often a result of triggers – stimuli that spur us into action or inaction.
These come in two forms.
External triggers come from the outside world – think pop-up notifications on your smartphone or small talk around the water cooler.
Internal triggers, like feeling bored, worried, fearful or stressed, come from within.
Regardless of what the trigger is, it can either lead to traction or distraction.
The former pulls us forward, triggering us to pursue our goals and ambitions. The latter does the opposite – it drags us away from those goals. It becomes a distraction.
Does that make you uncomfortable?
In reality, distraction always has internal sources.
Distraction is about escaping something uncomfortable. We blame it for our inability to get things done and fail to look at the true underlying reason.
If we want to improve our capacity to eliminate distractions and work towards becoming ‘indistractable’, start by identifying the triggers.
Make a conscious list of things that happen during the day that are the root cause of your distraction. If it’s the time you spend on the social media feed, measure it and work towards decreasing it.
If it’s interruptions like an office chat or poorly timed phone call, set yourself clear non-negotiable time frames where you are unavailable for contact.
Only by identifying the habits that lead to distraction and the reasoning for it happening, can you build a healthy habit of becoming ’indistractable.’
Like anything, we must acknowledge it first, accept personal responsibility, and then get to work to make the necessary changes.
Manos Findikakis is the CEO of Agents’Agency.
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