We hear all the time that distractions are killing our productivity in today’s hyper-connected world. But what’s the logical takeaway from that? Just turn off the phone for a while? Put headphones on? And what is the actual problem with the distractions?
I have now concluded that it’s not really the “distractions” that are even the problem; it’s the switching of tasks and, more importantly, the time wasted between the two tasks.
For me, I’ve noticed that every single time I “finish” a task (or potentially even when I have some kind of distraction), a process takes over where I go and seek out other distractions.
For example, let’s say I just finished a difficult task. I’ll check it off my list, and then check Facebook quick for notifications, then possibly the news, then my texts, then emails. It’s almost automatic behavior.
If I only did two things all day, this wouldn’t be an issue. But that’s not how it works. I probably switch tasks many dozens of times each day, and so these distractions are huge. That’s a ton of time.
And it can happen even when I’m not switching tasks. If I check texts or whatever, it’s likely I’ll go through the same routine.
So what do I do with this information?
I think the first step is to just work on being hyper-aware of it when it’s happening. I need to overwrite that script and habit, and being aware it’s happening is the first step.
Then, I just need to fight that urge and go right on to the next thing.
When I think of all my most productive days, I remember just plowing through and going right from one task to the next. A common theme is usually that I had a good “to-do” for the day, too.
I think it’s important to make it as easy as possible to go to the next thing in the list. Having a to-do list means that you don’t have to think about what’s coming next, and that means you’ll be way less likely to procrastinate about moving on. So always make that to-do!
But most importantly, I need to constantly be thinking about the distractions and how I can rewrite that script.