10 tips to kill distractions and increase your focus
Parent Post
Chris Bailey
Technology should exist for our convenience, not for the convenience of anyone who wants to interrupt us.
Clear your homescreen Move
Clear your homescreen
Move all icons from your home screen, so it goes completely blank. It should only display your wallpaper. In this way, you are less likely to be tempted to click an app icon.
If you need to keep some icons on your home screen, be sure to keep as few icons as possible.
Skip the morning check-in
Skip the morning check-in
You may be tempted to check your phone to see if there is any new notification or something new in the world.
But the moment you turn on your screen, a war breaks out between your attention and everything on your phone, and a minute of checking could extend to an hour.
Make TV a “sometimes
Make TV a “sometimes treat”
Watch TV occasionally. Don’t organize your living room around the TV.
Cancel your cable and Netflix subscription. Instead, rent or buy movies.
Distractions are everywhere, be
Distractions are everywhere, be it your smartphone, computer, or smartwatch. Although some notifications are indeed important and we need to respond.
But this hyper-connectivity should not come at the expense of your productivity. You don’t need to be online when you are studying from books or about to go to sleep.
Here are a few simple ways to kill distractions and focus on the tasks at hand.
Avoid the lure of
Avoid the lure of fancy tools
There is no perfect tool or app for productivity. It feels like we are busy but in reality, obsessing with finding the perfect tool is also a distraction.
Don’t spend your entire day searching for one perfect app because there isn’t such an app. Just start your task.
Try a distraction-free phone
Try a distraction-free phone
You can convert your smartphone into a distraction-free phone by deleting social media apps, games, and streaming apps like YouTube.
Thus, you can turn back the clock to a simpler time when it was easier to unplug and sustain attention while also enjoying the best of modern technology.
Be slow to respond
Be slow to respond
Don’t reply immediately to every email and message. Reply within hours, days, and sometimes weeks. Not every message and email is relevant to you. Most of the time, people contact you for their priorities, not yours.
Every time you check your email or another messaging service, ask yourself, “Does any random person need my time right now?” Keep in mind, the fewer messages you send, the fewer you receive.
Start on paper We
Start on paper
We work better when we use paper and pencil instead of screens. Precious time is wasted changing the fonts or searching the web instead of working on your project. Paper is a simple way to write or draw.
Next time you’re struggling to get into focus mode, put away your computer or tablet and pick up a pen.
Make a ‘random question’
Make a ‘random question’ list
If you need to browse anything from the internet or check any social media update, write that down on paper. You can browser that thing later when you go out of your focus mode.
It’s natural to feel twitchy for your phone or browser. You’ll feel a burning desire to know ‘Who was that actor in that movie?’
Instead of reacting to every twitch, write your questions on a piece of paper. You can browse your questions once you come out of your focus mode.
Wear a wristwatchWearing a
Wear a wristwatch
Wearing a wristwatch will stop you from turning to your phone for checking the time so you will not be pulled into distractions.
It will help keep your smartphone out of sight. And when it’s out of sight, it’s easier to ignore.
Cancel the internet An
Cancel the internet
An extreme focus tactic is to cancel your internet connection.
You don’t necessarily have to kill your internet for a month, just unplug it when you want to do a task that doesn’t require internet.
You can use your undistracted time to write fiction, design, or invent something.
Deal with email at
Deal with email at the end of the day
A lot of email stress comes from thinking you need to check and immediately respond to every new message constantly .
Treat your email like old-fashioned letters that were used to deliver to you once a day.