My Top 5 Distractions
By: Paula Farris
Tags: Productivity, Distraction, Focus

And How I Am Learning To Deal With Them

I have learned that without focus I will accomplish very little. If I can find a time by myself, silence my phone, and not be tired or hungry, I can get a whole lot of stuff done. But there are a lot of distractions in my life. Here are the top 5, and how I deal with them.

Children

As I’ve said before, I have a 13 year old son, and I also babysit two of my grandchildren, ages 6 and 4. My 13 year old’s love language is physical touch. He can’t walk through a room where I am, without somehow touching me, usually with a hug. I cherish this part of his personality and would never push him away, but it can be a bit distracting. Not in a bad way, of course, because one of my life goals is that all of my children would know how deeply I love them, but if I’m reading or writing at the time I do have to spend a few minutes finding my place and remembering where my thoughts were.

I don’t plan to stop this distraction. I love that my teenage son still wants to hug his mama. (Even in front of his friends.) Some distractions are worth it.

My grandchildren, however, are still learning how to respect other people’s time. I can tell them to play quietly and they forget 15 minutes later. Or one of them won’t play the way the other one wants and a fight breaks out. They are still very needy in a lot of ways.

It’s okay, they’re children. Training them takes time. I, along with their mom, are patiently teaching them and training them. My grandson, Ocean, is learning how to make simple foods. They are both really good at helping to clean up messes (even though they are usually the ones who create them in the first place!), and they are slowly learning to respect Grandma while she is working. It’s going to be a process.

Other Family Members

My other family members don’t purposely distract me (usually) as much as I have a hard time tearing myself away from our conversations. I love my family, I think they have great ideas, and I thoroughly enjoy their company.

I can talk about business and motivational stuff with my daughter, Anna, and sometimes I do — for hours. Of course, we also have to discuss the regular stuff of life which takes time. It’s very hard to stop talking with her.

My son, Keenan, and I can talk about marketing and nerdy stuff for hours. Well, when it comes to the nerd stuff he talks and I ask questions. It’s just so interesting and fascinating. I love it!

When my oldest son, Jeremiah, calls, I drop everything and answer the phone. I don’t see him as often as I see the rest of my family so I talk with him as often as I can.

I love that my adult children like to talk with me. It is such a blessing that they want me to be a part of their lives. I do have to force myself to stop talking with them at times, though, so I can focus on my business stuff. Thankfully they are all entrepreneurial themselves so they understand. I still have to make myself stop talking to them, though.

My phone

Between the Facebook app, email, games, and all the pictures I have to enjoy on my phone, it’s a wonder I accomplish anything in my life. And then there is the world of knowledge I carry around in the Google app to distract me! It’s Amazing how many things I want to know about.

And then there is The Chain, the text chain between my three sisters, myself, and one of my nieces. Every day for four and a half years we have talked to each other in a long running conversation. It is awesome! But boy can it be distracting.

To control the distraction of my phone I keep it on silent while I am working. I also place it face down so the notifications don’t catch my eye. I do have to force myself to not touch it at times, but it’s always there waiting for me when I take a break.

Hunger

I get so busy with everything I do in a day I forget to eat. At first it doesn’t bother me much, but then I (seemingly) get ravenously hungry. When this happens, it is all I can think about, but I am usually in the middle of a project and can’t just stop and take the time to eat.

I deal with this distraction by planning my meals for the week and then planning what I will eat for the day. Next, I look at my schedule and determine what I need to accomplish before I can eat. As soon as I have finished those tasks, I take the time to eat. If I am working on something that will take many hours I set an alarm on my phone for when I will stop to eat.

I used to think I could get more done if I skipped the time it took to make and eat a meal, and it seemed to buy me an extra hour or two, but when I got too hungry, the quality of my work diminished greatly. This isn’t helpful nor is it productive. So I take the time to stop, get some food, and eat. I also reward myself with some TV time or a visit while I eat to make it more enjoyable.

Tired

I used to be a night owl. I could easily stay up until 3:00 AM and get quite a bit done. At some point over the last few years I have transitioned into a morning person. Not on purpose, it just happened. This is a completely different way of life for me after 50+ years. Now I will push myself until I can barely hold my eyes open and then I will stumble down the hall to bed.

This is the distraction I struggle with the most. I am trying to establish a set bedtime and wake time, but so far I haven’t yet mastered that. There always seems to be one more thing to do that causes me to stay awake later than I should. But my internal alarm clock goes off sometime between 7:00 AM and 8:00 AM no matter what time I got to sleep the night before. I will eventually master this one.

Distractions can keep us from focusing on what is most important in the moment. We may have many aspects of our lives that are important, but we have to find a way to balance them all in order to accomplish our daily tasks with efficiency and excellence. It takes some practice, but I’ll get there.