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Hi Reader,

Ready to finally put an end to distractions? I know I am.

But in times like these, staying focused is harder than ever. Distractions seem to be everywhere. Even a quick glance at a news app can pull us away for hours.

In a previous article, we talked about how something like a furry little squirrel can be the ultimate distraction, managing to disrupt our entire day as we prepared a sailboat for the season.

For the next couple articles, I’d like to take a look at distractions from a few different angles.

This week, I’ll cover:

• How long it takes to get back on track after an interruption
• Why distractions can sometimes make us work faster

Next week, I’ll dig into the more surprising and fun side of distractions:

• The benefits of a well-timed, distracting nap (my personal favourite)
• How certain distractions can actually be helpful

Returning to a task

According to researchers at the University of California, after an 11-minute interruption, it takes a person at least 25 minutes to fully regain focus on a task.

For example, in an 8-hour workday, let’s say you’re interrupted four times, and once you subtract time for lunch and breaks, you might only have about 4-5 hours left for focused work.

But most of us have far more than 4-5 hours’ worth of work to do each day!

So, how can we avoid interruptions?

You could try isolating yourself in a quiet room where nobody knows where you are, but that’s not very practical. Renting a house in the woods for a month is another option, but that could get pretty lonely.

For me, sometimes it’s as simple as turning off all my notifications, putting on noise-cancelling earbuds and listening to a playlist that I’ve been productive with before. As soon as the music starts, my brain knows it’s time to focus.

Here's some other tips:

• Know that everyone underestimates how long a task will actually take.
• Try setting a 10-minute timer to start something, then once engaged, keep working until the task is complete taking only very short breaks.
• Block out time for a large task in your calendar and send yourself an invite to stay accountable.

Work faster with interruptions

It doesn’t matter whether an interruption is related to your task or not; any distraction disrupts your workflow. However, the University of California study showed people actually completed interrupted tasks faster, with no dip in quality, because they are probably working at a faster pace to make up for lost time.

But increased speed comes at a cost! People experience more stress, frustration, time pressure, and mental effort. Also, personality factors such as our curiosity and a strong need for structure helped some people cope better with interruptions.

The takeaway? While we may adjust and speed up our work to compensate, frequent interruptions increase our stress levels.

A distraction system

This means we may need to develop a personal system to manage our work. An efficient system not only helps us handle interruptions but also manages distractions, preventing overload and burnout.

You may be thinking, "Me, create a system? That sounds way too complicated!"

But your system could be as simple as:

• Blocking out daily focus time on your calendar for uninterrupted work.
• Scheduling meetings close together to create longer stretches for deep work.
• Prioritizing your most important tasks and completing them first.
• Tackling one large task before moving on to others.
• Breaking down big tasks into smaller, manageable pieces.
• Completing batches of smaller tasks in one sitting.
• Communicating clearly with your team (and your family if you work from home) about when you need time to concentrate on important work.

By incorporating some or all of these tips, you can better protect your productive time and manage your workload more effectively.

Distractions no more

Staying focused in today’s world isn’t easy, but it isn’t impossible. By building your own system and experimenting with different strategies, you can cut down on distractions and get more meaningful work done.

Remember, it’s all about progress over perfection. Try out a few of these tips this week, and see what makes the biggest difference for you. Your most productive, focused self might be just a few small changes away.

And if you want to hear about the fun side of distractions, stay tuned for next week’s article where we’ll chat about both napping and boredom busters!

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