Cell Phone Distractions

Posted by Dianne Hartwick in Organization, Self Improvement | 0 comments

08.06.15

We’ve all been there right? I hope it’s not just me that sometimes finds it hard to focus on the task in hand? It’s Monday morning and loads of emails have come in over the weekend vying for my attention, I have a “To-Do List” as long as my arm and I just know that my favourite client, you know who you are…needs that report today and although I grabbed a coffee and headed to my desk at 7.am, I seem to have achieved a big fat Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah so far.

The culprit to my inability to work this morning is my cell phone, it’s ON which means my friends are texting about our next golf game, my team are texting about upcoming client events and friends and family are texting about my daughter’s impending engagement party this coming weekend all of which seem way more exciting and attention-grabbing than the report.

Then of course there are the email and social media notifications pinging away which all too easily grab my attention too and before you know it I’m sucked in replying, posting, liking and tweeting and it’s 11.15am…Oh No! The morning has almost disappeared without so much as a tick on the “To-Do List” and I’m still no closer to finishing, let alone starting that client report.

In this modern world we are available 24 hours a day, we stare constantly at our cell phones waiting for something, anything and time just whizzes by while the answer to staying focused is quite simply to step away from the phone or even better…banish the villain and you’ll be surprised how easy it all becomes.

Here are a few simple tips for staying focused on the task in hand.

1.  Be invisible, busy or unreachable. It’s truly not a crime to turn your phone off, set your message status to ‘Busy’ or let your phone calls go to voicemail; if you need to focus on something. You’ll be amazed by how much you can get done when you’re not distracted. Put your phone in another room and check it every hour if necessary. I work from home, sometimes I’ll put my phone under the sofa cushions so it’s out of sight and out of mind. A bit drastic, however…it works for me.
2. Keep away from Social Media. It’s so easy to be sucked in to social media, especially after the weekend, but let’s face it, it’s really not life-threatening if you missed your friends update about what they had for lunch. Keep social media for your breaks, close those tabs when you’re working and reward yourself with a controlled visit when you’ve completed what is truly important…your work tasks.
3. Organize your emails. Keep business and personal emails separate by filtering or setting rules to make sure that Business Emails are directed to Business Email Accounts and Personal Emails are directed to Personal Accounts to be reviewed on your break or at the end of the day. And, ‘Unsubscribe’ from senders that you really don’t need to hear from. Organize the emails that require your attention and then delete the rest.