How To Overcome Distractions Sunday, November 16th Blogging, Daily News

I think I’ve set a new record with my posting – 4 days without a new post! Apologies to all, originally I had a post planned for Friday that I was to write up while at work (obviously during my break, haha), however as the day began to end, I got more work given to me – so by the time it came to leave, I had no post to show! Then on arriving home, it turned out my building decided to implement a new ‘gated community’ feature as of that day, and my girlfriend was unable to park anywhere. So I spent most of the night chasing down car parks looking for someway of making her car safe – which kinda killed my night.

Then the weekend came, and as I always do on the weekends, I spent time with my girlfriend. We had a lovely day, and when I had some time spare, I played on the new PS3 release Mirrors Edge. Playing the game saw me into the evening and then my girlfriend returned, and we caught up on some TV shows. Today has been very much similar, spending time with my girlfriend and playing Mirrors Edge.

So why am I telling you all this? Well while all this was happening, something in my brain was screaming at me…

My brain was telling me I needed to update my blog asap. I would constantly be thinking about when I could get the time to update my blog, and what I could write about. Yet the more I thought about trying to do it, the more I found I could be distracted easily – everything else became more important. Just sitting in front of the TV screen felt to me more important than writing, yet my head was telling me I needed to do it! Suddenly I remembered I had experienced this feeling before, many times over, and I’m sure you all have as well – Ever had that piece of work you knew had to be done, but when it came to trying to actually ’start’ that bit of work, you felt like you had to do something else: clean the house, wash the car, watch TV etc. I realised that I had started looking at my blog as work! As something I had started and am enjoying, this feeling is completely backwards to what it should be!

Now you may have noticed the post title was how to overcome distractions. Well, I’m about to flip it on its head, as I am going to suggest that instead you embrace your distractions. The distractions we have in life are what keep us sane, and what keeps our work good – if I had forced myself to write a blog post, it could have been quite a bad read, as my heart may have not be in it – ideally, your blog should be the distraction you take from work, as opposed to feeling like anything else. You should be able to come to your blog to get away from all the work and stress you feel during the day, and be able just to say whats on your mind. You should be able to relax and not ‘feel the need’ to even post everyday! When I started with my blog, I wanted to post everyday, and keep it updated to try and attract readers – and I think this is what a lot of new blogs try to do. I found it a bit of a burden on myself, as I would always be thinking of what to write, and end up writing useless content because I needed something to put down, so that people would know my blog was frequently updated! Yet through reading comments and posts from some of the more ‘established’ bloggers out there, I’ve found that it is what you write, as opposed to when you write, that will keep your audience coming back for more, and that’s what I have tried to do with my blog as of late.

Obviously you can’t just embrace all of your distractions all the time – you will need to do some form of work as and when e.g. to meet a deadline. Ideally you will ‘get bored’ of the distractions that plague you, and fall back into doing your work – however this is unlikely. I did call this post how to ‘overcome’ distractions, so here are a couple of ways I have found that have helped me ‘get on’ with my work!

When you start getting that ‘distraction’ feeling, try focusing on doing semi-important distractions (cleaning, diy etc.) rather than your ‘entertainment’ distractions, and then once you have done those, jump straight into your work, as quickly as you can without thinking! As you have been working yourself as opposed to relaxing, your brain should be in the correct ‘mind-set’ to carry on with work. Once done, or even once started, you can reward yourself with an entertainment distraction.

If that seems unlikely to help you, look at the piece of work you currently have on hand, and then think about something else, maybe another piece of work that needs doing, which is far less appealing than what you have on hand. Then try to start it – you should find the other piece of work starts to look more appealing now, and you will be able to pick up the piece of work you originally didn’t want to do.

If all else fails, do something else – don’t go with any of your distractions, don’t do any of your work. Simply go outside for a walk, run on the spot, do something completely different to whatever it is your thinking about. What this does is completely takes you out of the situation, so that when you come back to it you aren’t in the same ‘distracted’ mind you started off in. I recommend some form of mild exercise, as it also release ‘feel good’ chemicals into the body.

Distractions are a daily part of our lives, but rather than ignore them completely, if the work is not ‘important’ – distract yourself. You’ll find your mind and body will reward you for it. If the work needs to be done as it is important, follow some of the tips above – hopefully they will help you! Let me know your experiences with distractions, I love to hear from you all!

As for me, I’m heading back to my girlfriend, and will hopefully catch up with you all on the blogosphere tomorrow (I have a lot of emails and blogs to read that I haven’t got around to yet, lol!).

Dan