OR That Time My Dog Taught Me the Importance of Minding the Distractions
I have a dog. Four of them to be exact. They all think they are people and that they should be treated like people. That includes what they eat. I also have a wife, Lynn. She IS a people.
One afternoon a few weeks ago, my wife and the dogs and I were sitting on the back patio having some lunch. It was a nice day, there was a cool breeze, we were talking, and the dogs were watching our every move with our lunches. At the time, Lynn was on this kick of eating Port Wine Cheese and crackers. Port Wine Cheese is the delicious, weirdly colored cheese that you scoop out of its plastic container and slather on a cracker. It’s really good; I have had it. That’s what she was eating that afternoon.
Towards the end of lunch, Lynn’s phone rang. Well, we were nearly done and I got p and put my dishes away and went back into my office. Lynn got up and went into her office.
Several hours later, Lynn is in the kitchen and sees the lid from the Port Wine Cheese container and asks me if I knew where the container was. I did not. That’s when it dawned on both of us. She left it out on the patio. We both run to the patio and what do we see? Not a container of cheese. We both looked at each other knowing exactly where to go next…the dog yard.
And there it was. A chewed up EMPTY plastic container that had just a few short hours before had been nearly full of the cheese. One of our dogs, likely the youngest one, had taken the container out to the dog yard and eaten ALL of the cheese.
Well, we watched her and all the rest of the dogs for that night to make sure there would be no adverse reactions to eating all that cheese, and thankfully, there wasn’t.
Funny story, Lisa. What’s it got to do with me?
That’s a fair question.
Here’s what it has to do with you. How many distractions are you challenged with weekly? Daily? Hourly? A lot, amiright? It’s so easy to get derailed by the doorbell ringing, the phone ringing, email, social media, kids, parents….you get it.
If we let those distractions control us, we become less effective, less efficient, less productive. All of these things stop us from being a better team member, leader, mom, friend, person.
Ok, I get that. I think we all get that, Lisa. Thanks for sharing the obvious. What do we do about it?
Also, a fair question.
I do a few things. The first thing I do is to make a list of all the things that need to get done. A Master list, if you will. It’s so much easier for me to focus when I don’t have a million things in my head taking up space. AND let’s face it, as I get older and take on more, I have been experiencing CRS. My dad calls this the “Can’t Remember Shit” disease. I make my master list, I put it on a BIG white board in my office, and it gets updated pretty often. As I finish things, they come off and new ones come on. Every couple days, I create my action items for the following two days. This goes on a smaller white board but this time I attach a time on it. For instance, CrossFit- 9am, Prospecting 1:30pm, and so on. Not only does this let me know what I’m doing today but also when.
The second thing I do is to only work on one thing at a time. That way if I do get distracted, it’s a lot easier for me to get back to doing just that one thing. I am one of those people who does not like to see that I have any unread emails or unaddressed notifications of any time. If I see them, I have to look at them. Inevitably, that sets me off on a trip down the rabbit hole and I lose all awareness of time and space and pretty much and rendered useless. SO, I turn off my notifications, close out of my email, and shut off anything else that might ding, beep, or buzz. I will log back in after I’m done working or periodically, so I do stay on top of any pressing issues.
Something else that happens pretty frequently, particularly if you work with other people around, is this. You are working on something pretty intently, you’re in a flow, and someone comes in or calls you and asks you to come do something, or to “look at this,” or “come help me with something.” Now, they ask politely enough and may of us get up or stop what we’re doing and focus on them. We have stopped what we’re doing and redirected our attention. Predictably, I will come back to what I was doing and not know where in the hell I was or what my thought process was. Here’s how I deal with that. When I am asked to move my attention elsewhere, I will respond with a “give me a sec so that I can finish this or find a goo stopping place.” I might also ask if this requires my attention now OR if I can get to them later. Both of these put me in control of my attention and allow me to stay on track.
The last thing I want to share with you today is taking breaks. Many times I realize that my distractions come from the simple need to take a break. I have been working on something all day, I have been in front of my computer for several hours, and I am exhausted by the task at hand. That’s when I find I am most susceptible to distractions and that tells me I need a break. Lately, I block myself for no more than an hour and a half on any one thing. After every block, I take a break. It could be a 30 minute block, a 45 minute block and on up to a 90 minute block. For me, that’s when I notice I am at the bottom of my interest, enthusiasm and productivity for any given project and I will be no good if I continue any longer. So I break. I go outside, I play with the dogs, I run, or whatever. Anything that gets me away from the task at hand and allows me to reset my brain for a bit.
There are certainly more strategies you can use here to help you manage distractions. I don’t want my post on managing distractions to actually become a distraction so I’ll leave you here. AND if you have some strategies that you use, share them here. We can all benefit from the community brain and your tactic might be perfect for someone else and me!
Right now, I’m gonna take a little break. I winder if we have any of that Port Wine Cheese in the fridge?
