An hour later …
“I never seem to have time to write!”
Sound familiar? You may be sabotaging your own efforts by distracting yourself from your goals.
Discover how distractions may be affecting your writing as well as how you can increase your productivity.
First, knowing is half the battle. Distractions can be classified either as passive or active:
- Active distractions are from you. Often a result of habit or temptation, examples include texting, browsing social media, emailing, etc.
- Passive distractions are from outside influences. Examples may include incoming texts, phone calls, notifications, instant messages, etc.
Distractions can range from total attention-grabbing tasks to minor distractions:
- Immersive: You completely divorce yourself from your original task to dedicate all of your attention to the distraction. Examples include incoming phone calls and face-to-face conversations.
- Dominant: You allow the distraction to occupy your mind; the original task slowly develops back into your mind. Examples include web browsing or grabbing a cup of coffee.
- Distraction: Your attention is drawn away from your original task; once you return to the original task, you proceed more slowly and less accurately. Examples include ongoing text conversations and hunger.
- Background: Your attention is slightly diverted from your original task, which reduces your speed and accuracy. Examples include overhearing conversations or the television is on.
Knowing where the distraction originates can help you develop a plan of action.
Getting the Hang of It
Next, it’s not practical to believe you will be able to completely divorce yourself from distractions. However, you can improve your focus with planning.
- Establish Goals: Writing daily, weekly, monthly, and even yearly goals can help you stay on top of your efforts. How many articles do you want to write per week? Write it down.
- List Tasks: Write down all of the things you need to do to achieve your goals in addition to daily maintenance tasks such as checking emails, following up with clients, etc.
- Prioritize Tasks: Determine how important each task is by measuring its value against your goals and its importance to anyone else involved.
- Budget Time: Create a time budget by slotting time each day for your tasks, such as writing, brainstorming, checking email, business calls, making dinner, and other activities.
- Plan Long-Term: Brainstorm topics relevant to your audience ahead of time by establishing an annual editorial calendar.
- Execute the Plan: Your plan is only effective if you use it. Tweak your plan as needed and increase efficiency by using methods like timeboxing to squeeze more value out of your time.
Being Constructive About Distractions
Finally, be proactive about distractions. Not all distractions can be easily dismissed, nor are they all bad! Consider whether the distraction is worthwhile by measuring its importance based on its value to you, significance to others, and urgency.
- Low Importance: Stop diverting your attention with active distractions. Personal Facebook browsing, text messaging, and more can take up TONS of your time as well as lower your accuracy. These things may be important to you, but in the grand scheme – are they helping you achieve or hinder your goal? Focus on your tasks that help you reach your goal.
- Important: Passive and active distractions that are essential steps in achieving your goals should be addressed, but they may not be an emergency. Address these after other priority tasks are complete and then give it your full attention.
- Urgent: Timely distractions can be limited opportunities (“once in a blue moon” tasks that will help you increase your success) or emergencies (will cost you more time and money if left unaddressed). Don’t procrastinate with urgent tasks that can increase (or decrease) your success. Deal with these immediately.
Using the tips above, create more value by identifying your distractions to create a plan of success. How do you ensure you’re not sabotaging your efforts and how do you reduce distractions? Let us know – we’d love to hear from you!