“Once you become aware of how much you interrupt yourself, it’s hard to go back to work that same way again.” Chris Bailey, Hyperfocus
Multitasking may work for activities that don’t require much brain power. Watching television while eating is one example. However, multitasking is ineffective when mental power is needed to accomplish something. Yet, we try to do it all the time.
Sadly, even when we intend to work on something that needs to be done, we often interrupt ourselves and lose focus.
While we can’t easily control some interruptions (such as our boss coming in to ask us something, a customer in the workplace, or a personal emergency), we can create systems to prevent interrupting ourselves.
According to Chris Bailey in his book, Hyperfocus, it takes 25 minutes to resume work once people have been interrupted. In addition, people will work on an average of 2.26 other tasks during the interrupted time, which makes it harder to regain focus and momentum on their priority.
Why is it so easy to distract ourselves? Our brain is wired to look for new, exciting, and more attractive things to do. Ad creators, app notifications, and most tech devices in our lives rely on this. When we put our brain to work for an extended period to accomplish something important, we begin to want to be interrupted … and that’s a recipe for not getting done what needs to be done.
Prevent Distractions
We must create systems that prevent us from being distracted, enabling us to focus on our most important priorities in life. Here are a few ideas:
- Set time limits on your phone apps – I set time limits on Instagram and other apps to remind myself to not stay on them all day long.
- Remove unnecessary apps from your phone – Earlier this year, I took the Facebook app off my phone. I can still access the information through a web browser if needed, but it’s clunky and doesn’t keep me as engaged.
- Set more detailed goals and intentions – Instead of adding “exercise” to your to-do list for the day, write something like, “Walk 4000 steps around the neighborhood before leaving for work.”
Create Intentional Habits
Intentional Habits are another way to accomplish your work without getting distracted. Here are a few ideas:
- Work in a closed room.
- Keep your phone in a separate location.
- Work at your most productive time of day.
- Believe in what you are working on.
Work Toward Hyperfocus
Here are the four stages of hyperfocus as described in the book:
- Choose a productive or meaningful object of attention.
- Eliminate as many external and internal distractions as possible.
- Focus on that chosen object of attention.
- Continually draw your focus back to that object.
Give this a try. It has come to my mind during several projects since reading this book.
“One of the best ways to get more done – and done faster – is by preventing yourself from focusing on things that aren’t important.”
