Strategies for Avoiding Distraction and Increasing Your Productivity

I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday (you know who you are) and the conversation steered towards how difficult it has become for either one of us to be able to do distraction free, focused effort to think deeply. About anything. We are constantly distracted. We keep switching tasks. We are continually distracted by our environments, our devices and our primal need for novelty.

Yes, you read it right. Our brain constantly searches for stimuli that can help it to fight, flight or freeze if necessary or something interesting, funny that can give us a dopamine hit which feels good. The primal brain craves for both of these stimuli, one to keep us safe and the other to keep us happy.

We are naturally prone to being distracted.

In order to do deep, focused work, we need to build our abilities to stay away from our primal need for new stimuli.

Ability to do distraction free, focused work is very similar to a muscle. Like any other muscle, we can increase the strength of this ability by stretching it regularly over long periods of time. 

Houston, we have a problem: 

Like any other situation, before we can solve an problem, we need to first acknowledge that we have a problem. Once that stage is done, we can then move to the next phase, which is to put together an exercise regimen. 

Have a Plan: 

So, I did what any sane person would do… I put together a plan. A plan to improve my ability to work distraction free whenever I wanted to. 

Here are the strategies that I intend to use to stay away from distractions as and when I need: 

Start Small & Grow Fast: 

As is the case with any muscle, you can’t build it in a hurry. It takes time, patience and most importantly practice. You start small. Increments of 15 minutes at a time. Then increase that to 30 mins and then to 45 mins, 60 mins, 90 mins, 120 mins and 180 mins and then to 240 mins. 

I used the following strategies to move from small fractions of distraction free timing to increasingly large segment of time by doing the following:

1. No Notifications: As the first step, I removed every single notifications on my Mac and phone. I also signed off from all my instant messaging platform.
2. Feedback Loops:We need to know how well or how badly we perform against our goals. Then we need to understand the reasons behind our performance, good or bad. I used a pomodoro clock for Mac (Tomato One) and set up a set cycle (15/30/45/60 minute cycle). This meant that it would set off an alarm on a regular basis and I would check on what I was doing at that point and refocus if I had become distracted. This cycle time increases as our ability to stay focused increases. 
3. Celebrate success: I have long realised that whatever actions leads to celebrations, we learn to perform more of. So, decide on small targets and celebrate when you achieve them. For example, every time I have two 60 min distraction free sessions on a day, I will celebrate by going out for a drink in the evening. 5 consecutive days of this and I will go watch a movie. Once you realise that this is getting easy, stretch it and go for the next level. 
4. Win over your nemesis: Every time you find yourselves distracted, try to think of what it was that triggered the distraction. Think of how you can avoid or even eliminate it from around you. If you cant do that, learn a way to take away its power to distract you. 
5. Teach it to someone: I strongly believe that teaching someone a skill helps us internalise the skill at an even more deeper level and helps us stay true to the teaching. 

In Conclusion: 

I have realised that the productivity gains that I got from working free of distractions is so big that this alone has kept me on track to continue to work towards living distraction free. I apply the same principles in my personal life and in fun activities. What I still need to do is be distraction free when I am with people. This is still eluding me. But hey, I am working on it and I have a plan that works.