Distraction causes 15minute in focus relapse
Yep, that’s right, when a distraction happens, it takes 15minute to get back on track. when it comes to our goals, this 15minutes becomes a lot, especially is we get distracted more than once!
Its no wonder we can’t finish our goals and get caught up in other peoples headwinds, when distractions are close to hand, every ping, hello or phone ring is with in reach now, and distraction happens, 15minutes later when the distraction is sorted we are full back on track, that is if we don’t have to run away somewhere!
Writing things down, where you left off, before you have to deal with the distraction helps, but it still takes time, and although this helps, if it is an urgent distraction, will we remember to do this!?
Focus
What is focus, it is simply selecting a task goal or action you want to concentrate on, the more interesting the task, the more focused you can get!
You shouldn’t criticises yourself for not liking all tasks, but the more you train yourself to focus, the easier it is to focus on the mundane task in life! this is natural, accept it, we still have to do the task, its the distraction that happen that make it easier to move away from the task and hate it when we have to come back to finish that task, like doing the dishes, or ironing, these we all don’t want to do, but a distraction while doing these tasks are far worse, it makes these jobs longer and harder to do!
Where are ways to make this easier on ourselves, one of the easiest is to eliminate the distraction device (phone) this means putting it somewhere that isn’t close, not answering pings.
Lets say we are hungry, hunger or needing the toilet, also distracts, these are easy to stop with snacks (which can help increase our energy) or take a note pad with us when nature calls!
The thing is to not lose that 15minutes each time we get distracted, or if we do, we can be back on the ball quicker and finish our tasks, our goals are the future us thanking us, not our future self worrying again about needing to do the task we wish we started 3 months ago!
Excersizes
There is ways to increase our focus, both I practise regular, meditation and focus training!
The meditation is easy, we can do this anywhere, in the car while waiting at stops or when waiting for someone or somewhere, or like we talk about on here, when taking a bath, while adding to that experience with Bath Bombs
The other is interesting, I find it strange when it works, what you do is get a pen or pencil, hold it a foot or 30cm from your nose, start a count down on your phone or something, then focus on that pencil, keeping the word pencil in your mind and nothing else!
You will in a very short period feel your concentration increase, that minute a day is a massive development if you never done it before, and it is life changing, you feel different, the more you keep this little exercise going, the better.
I have a confession, I do this pencil exercise a lot, but I find it easy to forget to do it, I am from today going to start this exercise again! i want to feel focused on my task, while writing this, i wanted to go on FB 3 time, this took me closing tabs before i wrote Facebook in the search bar, it shows how easy it is for us to get distracted!