fulfilling life that aligns with your spirit
5 Important Questions To Manage Distractions
Published on 20 Aug 2008 at 4:29 pm.
13 Comments.
Filed under Business Development,Feature Articles,Personal Development Strategies.
It’s easy to become distracted. Sometimes we welcome distractions to avoid doing something we don’t want to do or deal with. Having a natural curiosity to learn new things can get in the way of staying focused. Interruptions, too much stimulation, weariness add to the many ways we get distracted.
One specific distraction is doing too many things at the same time. Perhaps you started doing something specific and you had an interruption and decided to stop what you were doing to handle it and then noticed something else you wanted to attend to which led to something else and…. before you knew it, several hours had gone by?
AÂ place I’m guilty of getting distracted is when I’m cleaning my house. I stop and start things in every room! I have to laugh and remember that when I’m done, things will be pulled together. In my work, I can become distracted by a number of things (like checking my email!) which is why having a system to interrupt potential distractions becomes important.
So, when clients ask me what I do to stay focused and avoid distractions, I use these five questions to keep me on track:
1. Is it urgent?
2. Does it have to be done NOW?
3. Is this the best use of my time and energy?
4. Is this moving me towards or away from what I want? (priorities, goals, vision?)
 5. If I say yes, what am I willing to give up?
On additional thing I do each morning is write down 4-6 must-dos in my calendar. I’ve made a promise to myself that I will not close my office until I complete those tasks for each day. It’s a simple system that keeps me in integrity with keeping my agreements. (yes, I do have some late nights sometimes! LOL)
What helps you?
To read more about what I wrote in a previous article about distractions, click here
Have a great day!
Lorraine
www.powerfull-living,biz
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Gamy Rachel on 21 Aug 2008 at 8:15 am: 1
Haha.. you are so cute Lorraine..
The part about cleaning your room, tickles me
I love the 5 questions too.
luv ya,
Gamy
lorraine on 21 Aug 2008 at 8:25 am: 2
Thanks honey
The five questions really help to bring priorites back into perspective!
Blessings,
Lorraine
Lola Fayemi / Nourishment for your spiritual awakening on 21 Aug 2008 at 12:50 pm: 3
Sometimes I’m sure you can read my mind. I’ve just spent sometime tidying, cooking and listening to a Abraham Hicks CD, yes all at the same time and all the while dying to check my emails.
After I put the rice on without water and forgot about it until I could smell burning I thought “Girlfriend, you gotta sort this out.”
This is a big area for me right now and one I’m determined to overcome, although I must admit I can’t imagine it!
In love, light and abundance x x x
Doug McIsaac on 21 Aug 2008 at 3:06 pm: 4
I chuckled to myself as I read your blog post and then asked myself the questions in relation to my current web selfing and blog reading
.
I better get back to work.
Doug
Connie Ragen Green on 21 Aug 2008 at 3:23 pm: 5
Lorraine,
Great ideas here. I like to prioritize using the rocks, pebbles, sand method. If if isn’t a rock for me, it will get done at another time.
lorraine on 21 Aug 2008 at 3:35 pm: 6
I haven’t heard that method Connie
I do love a great metaphor. Thanks for teaching me something new!
Warmly,
Lorraine
lorraine on 21 Aug 2008 at 3:37 pm: 7
LOL Doug
Loved it! Thanks for leaving me the comment before you returned to more important stuff!
Stop by any time
Warmly,
Lorraine
Mark McCullagh on 21 Aug 2008 at 8:40 pm: 8
It’s amazing what you can find yourself doing when you could be engaged in a “chore” or “task”.
Many psychologists say that this is due to having low frustration tolerance. In other words, we see the task we could be doing as hard work and we therefore find distractions to avoid the discomfort involved.
If you find yourself doing this, look at your thoughts regarding your task and dispute any unreasonable or irrational things you are telling yourself. In other words, change your beliefs about your tasks and chores.
lorraine on 21 Aug 2008 at 9:01 pm: 9
So true and great points Mark
We don’t always realize how powerfull attitude is in affecting our experiences. I encourage folks to look past the chore to the benefits/rewards rec’d for taking the action. The more attractive and compelling the rewards are, the more inspired and motivated we can be to take the actions.
Have a great weekend
Lorraine
Jeanne May on 2 Sep 2008 at 1:20 am: 10
Hi Lorraine…
I sure can identify with this topic! Big time!
Something I’ve used to help me is to have an “accountability buddy”… it seems to provide extra motivation and incentive to actually do what I said I’m going to do. It can be as simple as checking in with someone by e-mail a couple of times a week… and it truly does work for me anyway! And it can be about any tasks… whether they are to do with your business or in your personal life.
Warmly
Jeanne
lorraine on 2 Sep 2008 at 7:58 am: 11
Dear Jeanne,
Having an accountability buddy is great. I wrote about that a few months ago. I think we all do better when we have people to cheer us us, give us a nudge, and celebrate with. The most successful people have mastermind groups, accountability buddies, coaches, … Good for you in realizing the value of adding the additional support!
Have a fabulous week
Lorraine
Powerfull Living » Coaching Tip: Create A Great Ideas Page on 19 Oct 2008 at 9:22 am: 12
[...] Next year I intend to create another program based on my “I Say YES!†manifesto (blog post I wrote on Having The Courage to Say YES). The reality is, I have too much on my plate right now to dive into developing it. So, as thoughts come up, I add the information to my file so that when I’m ready to seriously look at developing the program, I can review some of the ideas that I already wrote down. Read my article on Managing Distractions [...]
si Paijah on 30 May 2010 at 9:08 pm: 13
i’ll try it, somehow i just runaway of what i have to do, i realize it but i dont have any passion to do what i have to do, so the easiest is runaway but this is bad for me T.T