Productivity: Getting distracted vs getting stuff done

Getting stuff done and generally being productive requires the mind to stay focussed on singular tasks until they are complete.

Sounds fairly straightforward, right? And yet this is where most people fall down, including you.

Why?

Simple.

You get distracted

You look away from what you're doing. Perhaps you open up another browser window to check Facebook. Or maybe you look outside through an actual window and just stare.

It doesn't really matter what is causing the distraction. What matters is that the mind is up for being distracted. It doesn't have the staying power for the task as hand. It wavers.

One minute you're doing the task, the next minute your attention wanders and you're checking email or your phone. Then your attention goes back to the task again.

Sound familiar?

In this podcast episode I dive into some of the reasons why you might be getting distracted so easily.

When your mind is easily distracted your productivity will suffer. The constant wavering as you flit between tasks and wonder whether this is indeed the right task for you to be focusing on creates a huge drain on your effectiveness.

Your productivity suffers

This constant shift in focus means that it struggles to move forward with The Thing it's actually trying to do and so your productivity suffers.

When a mind has strength and resilience it's much easier to stay with the task at hand until it's complete. And it rarely gets distracted. We have all seen people like this. Things are kicking off all around them and despite it all, they remain absorbed in the thing they're doing.

You see, it's not about The Distraction per se. It's about the mind and these two things specifically;

1. Is your mind OPEN to being distracted?
2. Can your mind withstand distractions?

As you become more resilient, you're better able to remain focussed and bat away distractions. It's all part of being unfuckwithable which you can read all about here.

But building mental strength and resilience doesn't sound like something that you can do overnight.

So in the meantime what can you do?

What can you do to avoid being distracted?

Specifically so that you can can get stuff done and generally be more productive.

The good news is that the answer is quicker to achieve than you might think.

This was something a business client came to me with this week. She told me that she was struggling to get stuff done and that she was getting distracted too easily.

My client is in lockdown and like many working parents she is working from home and homeschooling two kids under five. She's a CEO with 15 people working for her so already has plenty on her plate.

Lockdown was massively adding to her usual distractions and she told me that she was struggling to get stuff done. I think we can all relate to that!

So we used the Head Trash Clearance Method and cleared

• Getting stuff done
• Distractions and being distracted

You might think it strange for us to clear 'getting stuff done'. There are two reasons why we did that;

1. It's an important part of the clearance process.
   Head Trash Clearance involves working with opposites, and for my client the opposite of 'being distracted' was 'getting stuff done'.
2. It was the outcome that my client wanted.
   We often have resistance or blocks around our desires and goals, so it's always worth doing a clearance around the things you want to achieve. In this situation her desired outcome just happened to be the opposite of the thing she was struggling with so that made things nice and neat! if it wasn't the opposite then I would have asked two questions:

What's the opposite of 'being distracted'?

A good way to ask yourself that is "If you're not being distracted, you're what...?". The answer to this might have been 'being focussed' for example.

What's the outcome you desire?

This will be the thing you're struggling with, the thing you're trying to achieve but can't for some reason. This is because there are blocks in your way. In my client's situation, the blocks were her being distracted.

This clearance took just under an hour and the effects were remarkable.

She realised straight after doing the clearance was what was important and what wasn't.

Immediately she was able to identify five things that were on her to-do list that were unnecessary and mere distractions. So she struck them straight off without hesitation.

She also had unwavering clarity as to what she needed to do and what to prioritise. This gave her a renewed energy and motivation for the things she needed to do.

Result!

Head Trash Clearance Tips

If you're struggling with getting stuff done, use the Head Trash Clearance Method to clear

• getting stuff done
• distractions and being distracted