Do you wish you could finish what you started in a reasonable time span without getting distracted?

I do.

But more often than not, it takes me much longer than I like to finish a task and the cause is – distractions.

So, I decided to tackle “distractions,” today, once and for all.

First of all, what are distractions?

Distractions are things or factors that divert your attention away from the task at hand, making it difficult to stay focused and productive.

They can interrupt your workflow and hinder your ability to concentrate on your writing.

According to Nir Eyal, there are two kinds of distractions:

𝗘𝘅𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀: Things in our outside environment.

The pings, dings, and rings can derail a well-planned day.

𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀: These are internal emotional triggers that slip you off the track.

When you feel bored, lonely, stressed, or anxious, and start checking your phone or surfing the internet, you succumbed to an internal trigger.

External distractions are less of a problem.

It is the internal triggers that get me every time.

Usually, they occur when I am tired.

𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆.

We can pay close attention to something for about five to ten minutes before our brains start to lose focus and switch off like a light bulb.

I have found I can write for fifteen minutes at a time. After that, I need a pause.

That is why I turn on a timer when writing.

Fifteen minutes and then my brain knows it will get a break.

There are a few other things I do to manage distractions:

• I always keep my phone upside down. This way I am not tempted to check it.
• I use pen and paper for the first draft. I am much less likely to be distracted.
• I try to make the activity fun and play. Play doesn’t have to be pleasurable, it just has to hold our attention. Deliberateness and novelty can be added to any task to make it fun.

What do you do to manage your distractions?