It’s late January, so by now you have probably identified some goals you’d like to accomplish for the year (If you haven’t yet, then get hopping!). Now that you’ve decided on some goals you’d like to achieve this year, let’s now discuss the biggest roadblock you are likely to face along the way: distraction.
Whether it’s a noisy workspace, a news addiction, the constant beckoning of social media feeds, or various online distractions, these are the culprits that will ultimately sabotage your goals. No worries! We have pulled together some useful tips to help you rein in those distractions, maintain your focus, and set yourself up to win.
6 Ways to Reduce Distractions in Daily Life
Let’s face it, each day we are bombarded with a multitude of distractions that steal our time and impede our ability to focus. Whether your goals are work related or personal growth aspirations, you must remove those pesky distractions if you’re going to prevail.
Consider these tips for eliminating distractions in your everyday life:
- Take an honest survey of your distractions. This is the most important step for reducing distractions. Make a list of all the time-suckers that you are prone to indulging in. Are you a news junkie, constantly checking major news sites or channels? Do you spend too much time texting friends throughout the day? Are you scrolling your X feed every fifteen minutes? Try limiting your news consumption to five minutes in the morning and afternoon, and answer texts only in the morning and evening.
- Mute your smartphone notifications. If the pings, chirps, and bells emanating from your smartphone are constantly commanding your attention, you simply won’t be able to stay focused on anything else. Go through all the apps that send these notifications and turn them off or mute them. Don’t forget to go into settings and mute your text message notifications, too.
- Limit time on social media. When speaking of a goal-distracting nemesis, social media takes the prize. How often do we open up a social medial app just to “check in” and find ourselves still scrolling an hour later? If you are serious about meeting your goals this year, the best thing you can do is limit your time on social media to a half hour in the morning and maybe an hour in the evening, and that’s it.
- Limit TV time. Bingeing Netflix shows might have been okay during the Covid lockdowns, but that time is over. Now it’s time to discipline yourself and limit the time you spend watching TV. Limit your news consumption, too, as news shows can be addicting time wasters, but can also cause you to become stressed out and depressed. Keep your television time to one morning show and one show or newscast in the evening.
- Create a quiet workspace. Whether you work at the office or at home, a noisy workspace can be very distracting. While there isn’t much you can do to control the noise level at work, you can try using noise-cancelling headphones. At home, designate an office space and ask your family to respect your need for peace and quiet while you work on your next novel.
- Use a planner. Something as basic as using a planner to help manage your time can be a game changer. Create a to-do list every day, listing tasks in order of priority. Provide some space each day to work on one of your goals, and even schedule a block of time to devote to the goal during the week.
Also, do remind yourself why you set each new goal and how your life will improve by reaching them. Type up a list of your goals and the reasons for wanting to meet them, and then place it in a visible spot to remind you to keep forging ahead.
