You are studying for a huge test. Ding, your phone goes off!
Immediately your hand reaches for it, you must see what the alert is. This happens 6 times in the next hour. What was meant for an hour of learning, has turned into 20 minutes of studying, and 40 minutes of social media scrolling. You had no intention of this happening, muscle memory and the small dosage of dopamine have you grabbing your phone without even thinking of it. You now realize it is 10 pm, and time for bed as you must rise early. You throw the book into your bag and know you are not as prepared as you should be.
How many times has this happened to you? If the answer is more than one, that is one too many times. It could be a test, it could be anything. The point is we are all surrounded by distractions in life, and for every distraction, there is an opportunity to shine, and more importantly to GROW!
“Researchers at the University of California, Irvine found that it takes a typical office worker 25 minutes to return to the original task after an interruption, and an experiment by the authors of The Plateau Effect: Getting from Stuck to Success found that work interruptions decreased accuracy by 20 percent.”
You see what a distraction really is in its essence, is a shiny object that is thrown at us to either destroy us or keep us alert and awake. Quite simply put, we need to put on our big boy (or girl) pants and decide: will we let this distraction take over us or use it as an opportunity for growth?
You just need to say ‘NO’. Saying no is the single most important thing you need to learn to do when trying to achieve anything in this life. Distractions are everywhere and once we realize that, we can come to a true point of ridding them.
Oh, so it’s that simple? NOT AT ALL.
Distractions are amazing, I mean who doesn’t want to watch the next 6 new episodes of Suits, instead of doing their duty of state. Either listen to your friend rant on for 5 more minutes about his dramatic love life or check the next Snapchat from your latest crush. Regardless of the situation, distractions are always going to be hard. Here’s the part that is nails though: when something is hard to do, overcoming it brings the most reward.
So how can we defeat these dang distractions? Well, to be honest, it won’t be easy, but I will give you a few pointers to get you on the right path!
1. Know your kryptonite– understand which distractions are KILLERS of OPPORTUNITY for you and capitalize.
2. Stop the digital occurrences – designate times that you will rid all electronics and distractions from a selected slot in your day
3. Knock out the stuff you don’t like doing early in the morning – this only makes it easier for later in the day when distractions will try to conquer us
Well, hopefully, you made it through this article successfully without distraction! If you didn’t, try it till you can. Distractions can be scary and addictive, but nothing we can’t handle when we take the proper steps to eliminate them!
Happy Days!
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