Dealing with Distractions
In today's busy world, We each have many distractions that keep us from getting things done. At times I notice Myself getting Distracted when I have to get something Important done. I know that I am capable of getting things done and achieving things but I’ve noticed that distractions can make it tough.
What I have realized is that Concentration is being split into three different levels.
The first level is acknowledging that I have work to do. I can sit down and make a start, but I’m vulnerable to distractions and they can easily get the better of me. At this stage it sometimes feels like I’m looking for an excuse not to work. My mind can easily wander onto other things.
The second stage is a little deeper, as I’m starting to understand the task and my mind starts to figure out what is going on. At this point some distractions die down as I start to get more involved with the task at hand, but there are a few that can still break my concentration. If I got a phone call at this point, I would probably find my way onto the Internet after that, and blame the person who called for distracting me! This happened many times ;-)
The final level of concentration is when I’m totally immersed in the work, I’m 100% focused and in the flow. At this point I’ve developed some form of “armor” against distractions and it takes a lot to pull me away from the task. We all produce our best work when we’re concentrating fully on the task, and it is this stage that is the most useful to us is any line of work.
Getting to the final stage of concentration is not always easy and avoiding the distractions can be real tough at first, but if we sit down and just think about the distractions, it is usually simple enough to remove them. It is all in your mind. It is about how well you manage your Mental State. If we’re fully aware of what distracts us, and we consciously remove them, we can then start to concentrate on our work. The important point is to make sure that we get rid of them before we start anything, otherwise we’ll wake up from a daze and realise we’ve been doing something else for some time!
Before I start writing my next article, the first thing I do is disconnect from the Internet. The majority of my life seems to revolve around the Internet (Facebook, Twitter, etc) and cutting off is the only way I can get anything done. And also I switch my phone to silent mode and keep it away from me. I usually prefer to use Notepad as it's as good as writing with pen and paper without all the fancy spellcheck and font options. This is where I really start to build my Concentration and Focus real hard on writing my article.
And one more thing is to keep the Focus consistent, not that you start to concentrate and after sometime you realize your mind is elswhere....again you concentrate and so on.
Taking care of my distractions before you start any work allows you to Concentrate with full mind power and less chances of you getting distracted.
Initially, it does take a long time to develop this habit but trust me once it's in you, you will be surprised at how easy it is for you to get things done.
CAclubindia
