— Ms. Kirti Keswani

Member of Brainy Bunch

Nowadays, one thing that is most common in all of us is that all of us are goal- oriented, all of us want to reach our goal and achieve it and all of us want to be successful in our respective lives. But there is one another thing which all of us have in common and that is, “Distractions we face in achieving our goals.” Especially in recent times, when the technology as well as the people are getting more and more advanced, the distractions around us have multiplied, be it our smart phones, social media, relationships, break ups, family crisis, television, Netflix, over thinking etc. All of us are facing these distractions in our lives, if not all of them, then at least one or two of them.

Now, the question of the day is how to handle distractions and eventually overcome them.

The first step in overcoming distractions is to simply identify them. You should be aware that what are the things that are distracting you from being more productive at your work. Conduct a time audit that can show you where your time goes and what specifically is distracting you. By identifying the root of the problem, you can start to make necessary adjustments so that you can save time at the places it is getting wasted. If you already have knowledge, where your time is getting wasted then you are sorted for this step.

Once you have identified how you spend your time, you can make an informed strategy as to how to plan out your week. By planning your week ahead of time, you have a clear direction of how you want it to go, and you won’t have to scramble every morning to remember what you need to do. While you are planning your schedule, make sure that it is realistic. Plan out things in a way that you are able to execute them in real life. Keep some time for your breaks in that schedule, don’t work up yourself too much. Allowing planned time for breaks and indulgence will help you with how to focus better.

Next step is to adapt yourself to tackle the small stuff later because it is easy to distracted by little tasks that come up throughout the course of the day. They may not be the most important tasks but they are tempting enough to stop you from what you’re doing.

And lastly, remember to reward yourself from time to time. For example, decide that if you work continuously without giving in to distractions for one hour, give yourself a reward that you can use your social media for next 10 minutes or you can talk to any of your friend or loved one for those 10 minutes.

If you complete the work assigned to you on time for the day, then you can watch one episode of your favorite show on Netflix. If you are able to stick up to your weekly schedule that you planned, then you can watch your favorite movie on weekend or just go out and spend some quality time with your friends or family.

One important thing to remember, don’t punish yourself if you allow distractions to take over from time to time. It happens to everyone and is impossible to avoid completely. At the end of the day, we all are humans. We are bound to make mistakes, forgive yourself for those mistakes but don’t forget them and work on it from time to time.

Conclusion is that knowing your distractions can help you avoid them. Identify your major problem areas, and create a plan around how to focus better.

Hope this article added some value to your time. Stay tuned for more learning.