How I managed to overcome distractions? 10 ways to ensure you can too.
Distractions are everywhere and all around us. Any noise or sensation is enough to distract you. As the pandemic endures, there is a lot that goes around which distracts and agitates us. We live in a world that has become digital, where we have smart gadgets which make our life simple but somehow also make us lose focus, with unforeseen notifications, calls, messages, texts, and so on. Do we really ever stop to think about what distracts us?
It’s not just our digital lifestyle but also the things that happen around us that may allow us to lose focus from our work or ourselves. Things like the pandemic, everyday news that we hear, conflicts, hostilities and so on can be a few of the many distractions. So what can we do to avoid it?
It’s true that things happen, and often, they are beyond our control. What is the option that we have to avoid such distractions? Don’t you feel that sometimes you are just overwhelmed and agitated by all this? While sometimes it just gets a little too much, there is always a way out and that way out is a discovery and a road only you can choose to take. So let me tell you my story of how I found a way out by being organised and not get distracted.
Lately, I stopped answering calls and giving urgent attention to people’s messages, so that I could be a little more organised with my digital presence and use of smart gadgets. Since the pandemic started -- my work went fully virtual, my husband begin his work-from-home, my daughter started her online school. My classes are online now. In addition to my professional work, there is household responsibility. As most of my family and I work online there is a lot of exposure to these smart gadgets.
Since we can’t go out to meet our relatives, we receive their texts and calls every day. Now that we are back in Mumbai, the time we are spending on the screen has also increased. There is so much going on social media all the time.
On Instagram people are making Dalgona coffee, participating in other people's trends and then there are endless random stories on feed, reels, and so on. A lot of this content is even interesting, and all this daily content consumption, binging on Instagram doesn't go unnoticed. Suddenly it strikes me that oh no, I have wasted a lot of time on this. Then I decide that it can’t continue and that things have to change.
All these distractions are wasting our time. So I took a decision to limit my online consumption. I made a schedule and fixed my time for everything. I stopped receiving calls, and I told my family that unless it was urgent, I’ll prefer to text. I organised my consumption of gadgets, technology, mobile, etc. My life is the same. Nothing really changed except, as the pandemic continues and everything has gone virtual, I am now more organised, less distracted, and I focus on things that are important. I know many of us are clueless about how to limit our online consumption. Maybe now as I am sharing with you some of my tips on how to manage your online consumption, you'd not have to delve more into this subject and get onto the more important tasks. I hope these tips are helpful for you to limit your time on the screen.
Let's summarise:
- Organize
- Fix screen time for yourself & for your family
- Prioritize
- Fix a particular time to answer urgent messages
- Simply tell yourself to stop using/make less use of social media & fix a time
- Make a note of every time you go to check your phone for any reason compulsively
- Make a note of the total time you spend on social media & ask yourself whether it’s productive or just a waste of time
- Give yourself a target of an hour or so at the beginning to not check your mobile phone and then slowly increase the duration.
- Write down if you feel any difference in your focus & productivity
- Write down the positive outcome or visualise the positive outcome.
I hope this blog helps you to reduce your screen time and keeping yourself organised. Till next time… Stay tuned.