Chances are your business will not allow you to shut off the entire world for the entire day. It’s impossible. So choose times in the day you can be by yourself and most productive. It’s important to learn how to eliminate distractions throughout your work day.
Every morning, I carve out an hour of my time to really focus. I call it my “One Thing” hour.
My ONE THING hour goes a little bit like this: every day (including weekends) I have an entire hour dedicated to getting one task done in my business. It all started after reading The One Thing (by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan). Here I choose one thing I need to accomplish in my business.
Before the day gets started, I eliminate all distractions, set my phone in a different room, close the door, and go to work. I highly suggest you take the time to do this for your business. I prefer the morning because no matter what happens that day I got the ONE THING I wanted to get done.
This is the most obvious but hardest to do! Our phones are literally at our fingertips. Stay away from email, social media, television, etc. It’s far more difficult than you realize. Distractions are everywhere.
Everything seems to demand your attention. One study proved that it takes 25 minutes to come back to an original task after a distraction. That’s a CRAZY amount of time to lose – especially if you get distracted often. Can you imagine how much of your time you’re losing when you’re not laser focused?
Try to eliminate distractions by shutting off instant notifications on your phone. This will decrease the amount of times you are checking your phone throughout the day.
This should be whether you are at the office or working from home. Find a way to tell others around you that no matter what, you should not be distracted. That may include your coworkers, significant other, children, or other family. I used to have an “Open/Closed” sign that hung outside my office door for this very reason.
You don’t need an actual sign for people to understand your intention. Putting on headphones can signal to coworkers or family that you should not be disturbed during this time. You should only use this sign (literal or not) when you clearly need to focus. Otherwise, people will end up tapping you on the shoulder or knocking on your door at their own convenience.
Strategically plan out what your ONE THING is the night before. This ensures you are not wasting the entire hour thinking of what you could be doing.
Complete the hardest or most demanding task in the beginning of your day. This leaves far more room for you to be productive as the day goes on.
You should always make time for reflection at the end of the day. Did you get done everything you wanted to get done? If not, you may want to assess what may have been a distraction. Maybe you’re a social butterfly. Assess what needs to change during your daily routine to prevent interactions that affect your productivity. Plan out what you need to focus on tomorrow!
Once you master this, I challenge YOU to find 3 different times during the day where you can get laser focused. It doesn’t have to be for an entire hour, but the key is to work without distractions.
This process is similar to meditation. Meditation is part of my daily morning routine, but it can be frustrating at times. At the beginning, your mind is being pulled in many different directions. While the key to meditation is to focus on your breath and the present moment, it’s hard to keep from getting distracted.
Find a few moments to practice this throughout the day. This will help you stay laser focused when distractions do arise – and trust me, they will!
Someday you’ll find yourself on an airplane next to a screaming baby…and you’ll still be able to get what you want done.