Have you ever faced distraction problems while pursuing your goals? Have you ever found yourself distracted by various things while doing your tasks? Have you ever found yourself unable to focus on your job as your mind craves something else from time to time, making you feel very guilty about yourself?
I have faced all of them. This problem is called distractions. I am not talking about external distractions. Real distractions are internal, not external. You can’t avoid external distractions. There will always be some external distractions, like someone disturbing you, something breaking down which causes a lot of time consumption, your family interrupting you in your work, or your colleague becoming very loud and irritating you. There are external distractions, and they are inevitable in everyone’s life.
You can’t stop external distractions. They are inevitable. The only proper solution for dealing with external distractions is to try your best to prevent them, and if unable to prevent them, then compromise with them. The best way to prevent external distractions is to optimize your external environment and set boundaries with others so that no one can disturb you, or at least disturb you very little. Telling everyone not to disturb you is your first step. Finding the right time to work when very few people could disturb you is another step. Disabling push notifications from various unnecessary apps is another step in dealing with external digital distractions. There are many creative ways you can think of to optimize your environment, so I am not writing much about this here. Everyone’s external situation is different, and thus only they can make the right plans as per common sense to optimize their situation, aka environment, to reduce external distractions as much as possible.
Now let’s talk about internal distractions. This is a huge issue, and it requires some deep level of thinking to solve this. As per my own experience, external distractions cause 20% damage, while internal distractions cause 80% damage to your productivity. If you solve your internal distraction issue, then you are better able to deal with all your external distraction issues too.
So what is this internal distraction all about, by the way? Let me give you an example to understand better. I started my work at 9 AM and decided to do it until my lunch at 2 PM. Initially, I felt laziness, confusion, and hesitation to do my work. But I tried to force myself and do the tasks anyhow. 30 minutes gone and a few works done. Then suddenly I lost interest in doing any more work. I thought, let’s take a small break of 5 minutes. So I opened YouTube thinking I will stop watching it after 5 minutes. But something magical happened when I started watching YouTube. The 5 minutes gone very fast, and it felt like it was gone in a few seconds. So I thought, let’s watch a few more minutes, only a few more minutes. Just one short only. Now 20 minutes passed, but my mind still wanted to watch more; while at the same time, I felt very guilty and hesitant inside me. I again forced myself to continue my work. I was still feeling guilty about why I spent so much time on YouTube. I must not have done it. Ok, let’s forgive myself and continue my work. 30 minutes of work done, and I found no interest in doing my work again. Again an innocent thought came to spend just a few minutes on Facebook or Instagram. I felt something wrong inside me as if something inside me was giving me a warning not to do it. But I ignored it, thinking I am doing just a few minutes of social media only, there is no harm in it. And as expected, these few minutes became 20-40 minutes. Again, feeling guilty about doing it and forced myself to do my work. But it was 12:30 PM already, and I had just 1.30 left to lunch. I did not expect to complete my work by then. Let’s do as much as I can do. I did more 1 hour of work and found my work would take a lot more time, and it would never be finished by my deadline. Let’s delay it to afternoon work. Let’s talk with some friends or go for a smoke break. It will just take 10 minutes of time. And I went for it, leaving work at 1.30 PM instead of 2 PM.
Afternoon came, and I thought this time I would complete my work even if I felt lazy, hesitant, and not interested in it. And you know what happened. The same repeat pattern happens. Every few hours, I get distracted. Every time I think it will just be a few minutes, but it takes 20+ minutes. Due to this, the work was not finished the same day and again postponed to the next day. The next day, the same happened and again postponed to the next day. This was a simple 1-2 worth of tasks consuming 1 week of time. And I felt extremely sad about my performance. I felt guilty and had low self-esteem. I felt angry towards me. I promised not to do this at all and become very disciplined. I made plans to be disciplined, I asked others for advice, I read articles, I read books, and I started my next week. A few days went well, and I was very happy with myself. But again, the same old patterns came back, and here I am again in the hell cycles of distractions.
I hope now you can understand how big an issue these internal distractions are. Many people are facing it, it is not just me or you. It is not the fault of the external world, nor is it the fault of your smartphone. It is not the fault of YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram. There is something more sinister happening here. Taking full responsibility will make you feel in control, but it does not solve this issue. So it really needs some deep level of thinking to solve this major problem that everyone is facing nowadays.
Below are the solutions I am using now, and they are helping me immensely. Does this mean I am 100% free from all internal distractions? Nope, as it is unrealistic and impossible. But by using these solutions, I am 70-90% able to manage all my internal distractions.
So let’s start solving your distraction problem now.
1) Increase Your Willpower:
Willpower is essential for any sort of problem solution. Even if this is not the perfect solution, otherwise everyone could be successful by just improving their willpower. But by having high willpower, it gives you the internal energy to make changes in your life. Read this article to increase your willpower to a higher level, and it will give you all types of energy to deal with all types of distractions, both internal and external.
2) Master The Art Of Dealing With Negative Feelings:
Negative feelings or any types of emotional issues are one of the root causes behind all types of internal distractions. When you get negative emotions due to whatever reasons, you will always be prone to internal distractions. Because negative emotions will eat all of your willpower, make your mind foggy and remove any remaining motivation to do your work. Read this article to quickly remove any negative feelings from your life. Here I will tell you how to use a simple quick CBT formula to remove any negative emotions within a few minutes. It will be very useful in your work time. Then later in the evening or in your free time, start working on improving your overall mental health.
3) Verify That Whatever You Are Doing Is Right:
This is another root cause behind why we are all prone to all sorts of distractions in our life. Most of the time what happens is we decide to do something hoping it is good for us, but in reality, they are not good for us.
For example, you are doing a particular task hoping it will solve your problem or give you some specific results. Your plan seems logically right, and it makes sense. But something inside you does not approve it. You will feel high internal hesitation, you will feel something is wrong. In my own experience, I have found that in such times, there is always some missing information in my plan. Upon verification, most times I found that what I am going to do is actually a wrong idea, it will just waste my time and give me failures. While some other times, I found that what I am going to do is not easy or simple as expected; there are some obstacles, some lack of resources, some help required, etc. When you have fully verified that what you are going to do is right for you, you will get internal support from inside of you. And at such times, you will get internal motivation to stop all distractions, including both internal and external ones; and also get motivation to do your work for a long long time. Read this article about knowing going in wrong path. It will help you better understand this concept.
4) Visualize to deal with all other problems:
Even after following all the above steps, there is still one piece missing. It is getting support from your conscious mind. You will still face laziness, impulsive thoughts, losing interest, etc. So this is the last step to solve all these issues at once. The solution is simple, and it is not about any bullshit law of attraction theory. So here before starting your work day, visualize that you are doing all your tasks, ignoring all distractions, not being lazy at all, feeling good about your life, letting go of impulsive thoughts, completing your work, dealing with all problems nicely, etc. Simply spend 2-3 minutes visualizing that you are doing your tasks and dealing with all sorts of issues easily. No need to try to act as if nor practice any believing. Simply visualize. As per my own experience, when I visualize, something happens inside me. It seems like my conscious mind gets a clear path to follow, and I started to follow my visualized path at my best. This does not mean I do not get distracted; I do, but I am better able to bounce back to my tasks while feeling very less guilty. Read this article to know more about it.
Some more tips:
- If you are confused, then you will be unable to focus on your tasks. Read this article to solve your confusion issue.
- Follow some other tips from your own experience and from other people too. Make some reality tests before fully immersing yourself into following them.
I hope all these tips above will solve your internal distraction issue up to 70-90%. Make some reality tests before trusting me. If it works, then it does not matter. If it does not work, you get one more experience asset. Before closing this article, I am giving you a few last tips.
How To Detect You Are Going To Be Distracted?
You will always feel something wrong inside you, a type of uneasiness, a type of painful hesitation. I treat this as advanced warning feelings. So when you are taking a small break and you feel something is wrong; know that you are about to waste a lot of time by distractions.
How To Detect You Are Already Distracted?
The same something wrong feelings. When you are distracted from your work, you will keep feeling this something wrong feeling. It feels like guilty feelings. Note that it also includes doing tasks which are not required to do. It means when you found yourself getting busy with tasks that are not aligned with your current goal; this too can be treated as a distraction. And at that time too, you will most probably get guilty feelings.
What To Do When You Found Yourself About To Get Distracted?
Use my simple visualization technique. But before this, remove your guilty feelings by using my quick CBT formula. And then visualize that you have resumed your work, not being distracted anymore, able to let go of your impulsive thoughts, etc. And wait a few minutes. You will automatically start working again. It works every time. At least with me.
