I’m not going to lie, I have been “DISTRACTED.” As a political science major who focused in constitutional law and had a college internship in voting rights… concentrating has been a difficult battle.
I knew with kids doing school at home, American politics, the news, and also just being human, I didn’t want to feel this way all of the time.
I wanted to be focused. I wanted my clients to be focused. When entrepreneurs aren’t focused, we don’t build our businesses. So I wasn’t willing to see where this road was going to take me. I decided to read the book “Indistractable.”
Today I’m going to share the best ways to become Indistractible, and it has nothing to do with willpower. It’s not about saying “Tasha, just be more focused you big loser!” Shame wasn’t going to help.
The biggest “mind blowing moment” was that traction and distraction need to be talked about together. Traction, in this context, means gaining momentum toward what we want. Distraction is getting pulled away from making traction on what we want.
In no particular order, here are the top tips to be “indistractable.”
- We need to get clear on the life we envision and what we want to do with our time before we can even recognize distraction.
- Being “indistractable” means striving to do what you will say you will do. This starts with actually saying what you WILL do.
- Technology isn’t the problem. Our unwillingness to sit in discomfort is the problem. It’s just that now our tech provides a quick escape from discomfort. We need to learn how to handle discomfort.
- If there are boring tasks, it helps to be curious to ask the question, “how can I make this fun?” or make a game of it.
- It’s important that we offer self-compassion when we do get distracted. If we add shame to the distraction, now we are more likely to get distracted, again.
- Only ⅓ of Americans keep a daily schedule. We need to ask ourselves, does my calendar reflect my values?
- Having “free time” set aside in our schedules provides more freedom and helps us focus until that time is available to us.
- It’s worth taking an hour to set up electronic devices so external triggers for distraction are eliminated if they aren’t serving us. This could save multiple distractions per day that are unnecessary.
- Make “precommitments.” A precommitment is when you remove a future choice to overcome impulsivity. We do this with our will, or end of life directive. We can do this in other areas of life.
- We can make pacts with ourselves and others to hold us accountable. A few examples are: taking on an identity like “I’m a vegetarian” because then your identity will eliminate any choices on eating meat. You make a pact with yourself that you just don’t do that. Other pacts are effort packs (making an appointment with a friend to work together like the power hour or phone jams we do) or price pacts (telling someone if you don’t get this project done, you will pay them a painful amount of money).
But the MOST FUN tip of all is the “concentration crown.” When I wear this crown, it’s time to concentrate. When I’m not wearing it, I don’t have to focus. This triggers a concentration identity and tells others I am concentrating and to come back later.
We can scold ourselves and create a “hostile work environment” between our ears, or we can start having a little fun.
Ultimately a lot of not succumbing to distraction is making a simple plan. But this is an important business activity that often gets neglected because things that are easy to do, are also easy not to do. In all of the distraction, we fail to review our last month, make a plan to repeat what went well, and stop what didn’t. We “forget” to set new goals, and strategies to pursue them.
This is why every month we have a Planning Party in the Emerge Surge coaching group…. Right now we have a 2 week free trial where you can come to the planning party without paying anything. If you decide you love the weekly live workshops in the Emerge Surge, you will pay $47 after your trial ends. You can join at: https://emergesales.kartra.com/page/14days
I hope to see you there! – Tasha