17 Ways to Kill Common Distractions

With all the noise from the Inter­net, our com­put­ers and our envi­ron­ment, it is dif­fi­cult to focus even for 10 min­utes straight. I’ve started using the Pomodoro Tech­nique and it has helped me tremen­dously, but there are still a lot of dis­trac­tions, mostly com­ing from tech­nol­ogy itself. Tech­nol­ogy (and the inter­net) is the bane and boon of humanity.

Here are things you can do to kill com­mon dis­trac­tions. Thanks to Web­worker Daily for the post:

Turn off auto­matic email check: Do you have your email app pop up or ping when­ever a new mes­sage comes in? Turn it off. Most of us can’t resist check­ing email.

Close or min­i­mize your email app: Whether you use Gmail or Out­look, close or min­i­mize the app so you stop look­ing at it. I use Thun­der­bird and Gmail. As I write this, my browser sits in the task bar so I don’t keep look­ing at the sec­ond mon­i­tor to check for new mes­sages. That lit­tle step of kick­ing the email app to the task bar works for me.

Close or min­i­mize your browser: You may not use a web-based email app or keep it open all the time. But hav­ing the browser open when you don’t need it can turn it into a dis­trac­tion. See­ing the browser, your eyes can’t help but look at what­ever web site the browser has open for you. Again, send it off to the task bar or close it. A blank page can still act like a temptress.

Down­load a dif­fer­ent browser: If you use Fire­fox for all your brows­ing needs, down­load Opera, Google Chrome or other browser to use as a “research browser”. Using a sec­ondary browser will cut the temp­ta­tion to visit your favorite sites since you won’t have book­marks or saved pass­words. Avoid using book­marks and saved pass­words in the sec­ondary browser.

Install fun apps on a dif­fer­ent com­puter: Most of us have more than one com­puter. Since I do game reviews, I install all games on my lap­top rather than my desk­top. Even though play­ing games is part of my job, it can take over my other work. With the lap­top in another room, I’m not tempted to play even the most addict­ing ones.

Use a timer: If you can’t work for 10 min­utes free of dis­trac­tions, set the timer for 10 min­utes and work on the task until it dings. Up it to 15 next time around and work your way to 25 min­utes, the rec­om­mended time from the Pomodoro Tech­nique.

Shut out noise: Way back in the day when I worked in a cor­po­rate envi­ron­ment, I had a neigh­bor who used his speaker phone every day. When this hap­pened, I turned off my hear­ing aid to resort to my inborn silence. Few peo­ple can do that. Instead, try noise-canceling head­phones, ear plugs or lis­ten­ing to music. If you’re a web worker, then you prob­a­bly have a lap­top. Take it and go some­where quiet.

Set up a phone sys­tem: You may have peo­ple (fam­ily and spe­cific col­leagues, per­haps) that you must be avail­able for at all times. Brain­storm how you can set up your phone to be open for those impor­tant calls, while shut­ting out the run of the mill calls. See the next tip for one idea.

Unleash the cell phone: If you need zero inter­rup­tions, then turn off the phone. Don’t just put it on vibrate, as you can hear that. If you must stay leashed to the phone for emer­gen­cies, how about mod­i­fy­ing your cell phone’s pro­file? Set it up so that calls from emer­gency num­bers have a spe­cific ring tone, while silenc­ing all other incom­ing calls.

Turn off the land­line ringer: Home office work­ers may have a land­line phone to con­tend with on top of their cell phones. Turn those off. Let the calls go to voicemail.

Leave the cell phone in another room: I had to stop bring­ing my phone with me to work­outs because I’d keep check it. If some­thing came in, I’d stop exer­cis­ing and deal with it. Unless I’m expect­ing some­thing, I leave my phone in a dif­fer­ent room. Out of sight, out of mind.

Post instruc­tions on the door: Do you fre­quently receive pack­ages as part of your work? The door­bell ring­ing or door knock­ing can dis­rupt your work. Leave a note for the deliv­ery ser­vices to not ring the bell or knock on the door. Make it a habit to check for pack­ages at set times of the day, if you worry about theft.

Sched­ule social media time: Many of us strug­gle to limit the num­ber of times we check on our favorite social media sites. If you have a bunch of tweets or notes you want to post, use an auto­mated ser­vice to spread them out and keep you away from the site. Or, cre­ate a sched­ule for check-ins.

Go offline: C’mon, you must have some tasks you can com­plete with­out the Inter­net. Dis­con­nect your com­puter or lap­top from the net­work to force the issue, if you must.

Cre­ate habits: Because I never play games on my desk­top in my home office, I never feel the urge to play the addict­ing ones. It takes 21 days to form a new habit. So pick one habit and stick with it for at least three weeks. Rou­tines do make a difference.

Edu­cate fam­ily: The school day doesn’t go on long enough for a full day’s work or a part­ner works in the home with you. Set up visu­als that tell your fam­ily when they must not inter­rupt you. It could be closed doors or a sign on the door. Kids have dif­fer­ent def­i­n­i­tions of emer­gen­cies, so dis­cuss what you con­sider an emergency.

Sched­ule house­hold chores: Tak­ing a short break from the com­puter is a must. This could be a good time to do brief chores such as load­ing laun­dry, mar­i­nate din­ner or vac­u­um­ing one room. Save the longer chores for longer breaks, or when the fam­ily is around.

Many web work­ers rely on tech­nol­ogy to get our jobs done. These tips help you draw the line so you use the tech­nol­ogy for com­plet­ing tasks with­out any sidetracking.