How to get in focus fast. A 3-part series.
And those are just the interruptions you had in the past 20 minutes.
Even worse is when no one gets in your way and you can concentrate except – oh look at that, I'll just check the headlines quickly – or – what time is it? I'd better call Kate/Ofer/Ming-li to see what we're doing tonight – or even, when around others – he doesn't need to yell into that phone, we don't all need to hear him.
Interruption is an action beyond your control that forces you to stop what you're doing and react.
Distraction is something that you voluntarily give your attention, diverting it from whatever else you were doing.
To illustrate the difference – if someone taps you on the shoulder for help, you can't simply pretend that they're not there. However if a person just walks by your chair, you don't need to strike up a conversation with them about the broken fax machine that left toner on their hand just like yours.
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Thanks for stopping by my blog and sharing this link. Limiting interruptions is so crucial to productivity, I can't even remember how I got stuff done before.
More and more of the writers I know are doing their actual composition work on computers that aren't connected to the Internet.
It bears repeating that managing distraction is a life skill.