Between the smartphone notifications, the intercom ringing and the emails clogging up the inbox, it becomes increasingly difficult to concentrate on your goals. Planning our actions in advance ensures that projects are completed but, sometimes, it is not enough. We also need to be able to say stop to distractions. Here you are the four steps to followsecond Nir Eyalauthor of How to become indistractable (LSWR Editions).
Anti-distraction techniques apply to different fields
Nir Eyal’s principles are not only useful at a work level. They can be applied for:
achieve career success;
stop smoking;
lose kilos;
study; get a project – or a dream – off the ground that we’ve kept on the back burner for too long.
Recognize the distraction
It is often psychological discomfort that leads us astray. It is therefore necessary to learn to manage this aspect and to complete even the activities we don’t like. It is important, therefore, to set ourselves the goal of making any task we have to carry out pleasant. Possible? Yes, by cultivating the ability to concentrate intensely on what you are doing, starting to look at that activity with different eyes.
Schedule free time
It’s important to carve out moments for the things we enjoy. But how do you find time for your passions? You need to plan it. Also free time must be planned.
Identify unwanted stimuli
Examine the external stimuli that we identify as unwanted, hindering productivity and decreasing well-being. And we’re not just talking about digital devices. The unwanted external stimulus can be the chatty colleague who prevents us from completing an urgent project, or a cookie that attracts our attention. Once you have identified your distractions, it will be easier to learn to develop strategies to manage them.
Make a deal with yourself
Must set yourself a goal, even a small one, and complete it. Creating a pact with yourself and then giving yourself a reward will allow you to reach your goal with more serenity.
Other useful anti-distraction tips
Here are other useful tips to avoid getting distracted by emails, smartphones and long work meetings.
Defend yourself from your smartphone with 4 simple moves
Eliminate
Uninstall apps you no longer need. It is therefore necessary to know how to make a selection, keeping the most important and truly useful ones for our daily life
Substitute
Change where and when you use potentially distracting apps, like social media and YouTube, by moving them from your phone to your desktop. Get a watch so you don’t have to look at your phone to find out the time.
Reorganize
Remove any apps from your home screen that may lead you to check them without realizing it.
Plus, instead of swiping from screen to screen to find an app you need, use the internal search function. This reduces the risk of running into a distracting app
Reclaim control
Change the notification settings for each app. Be very selective about which apps can send you audible and visual signals. Learn to use your phone’s “Do Not Disturb” settings.
Do too many meetings distract us? Here’s what to do
Make it harder to call a meeting
To call a meeting, the person organizing it must circulate an agenda and a presentation document.
Meetings are about building consensus
With a few exceptions, the creative problem-solving part needs to happen before the meeting, either individually or in very small groups.
Be totally present
People use devices in meetings to escape monotony and boredom, which then makes meetings even more burdensome and pointless.
Only one laptop in each meeting
Devices in everyone’s hands make it more difficult to achieve the goal of the meeting. Except for a laptop for presenting information and taking notes, leave all devices out of the meeting room.
Too many emails? Here’s how to handle them
To receive fewer emails, we need to send fewer emails
Often the messages we send and receive are not urgent, but the brain has a weakness for variable rewards. So we find ourselves treating every message as if it were urgent. And to continue to feed a cycle of messages that may not be necessary.
Establish “office hours” for responding to certain emails
For example, you can establish a specific time slot in which to respond to non-urgent emails, even on specific days.
Slow down and delay sending
Instead of crafting a response on the fly and immediately clicking the send button, some email programs allow you to delay delivery of a message. Thus, fewer emails sent each day results in fewer response emails per day.
Spend less time on each message
Label individual messages by when they require a response. Reply to messages during a time period scheduled in your calendar.