Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to not distract yourself. The world offers
Speaker 1: plenty of distractions during work hours, whether you're working in
Speaker 1: an office or as many of us are, at home.
Speaker 1: You can't necessarily control other people, but you can control yourself,
Speaker 1: and you want to make sure you aren't adding to
Speaker 1: the problem. We all know that it's important to focus.
Speaker 1: We also know that this is easier said than done.
Speaker 1: When you work in an office, colleagues can stop by
Speaker 1: the chat, or you can be pulled out of deep
Speaker 1: work by other people's conversations. At home, you can add children, partners,
Speaker 1: and pets to the mix, to say nothing of your
Speaker 1: neighbor's lawnmower or leaf blower, or the time necessary to
Speaker 1: direct the guys who stopped by to deliver the woodchips
Speaker 1: from mulching to your driveway. You probably can't do much
Speaker 1: about your neighbor's ten am lawnmowing, but let's face it,
Speaker 1: those aren't the only distractions. I just saw my phone
Speaker 1: sitting on my desk next to me. I picked it
Speaker 1: up and glanced at the comments on my Instagram feed.
Speaker 1: Did I need to do that hardly? I checked my
Speaker 1: inbox too while I was there, Nothing urgent, which isn't
Speaker 1: surprising since I was in there fifteen minutes ago. There
Speaker 1: are also the distractions that seem productive, you know, like
Speaker 1: moving the laundry over to the dryer or taking meat
Speaker 1: out of the freezer for dinner. And yes, those things
Speaker 1: do have to happen at some point, But if you
Speaker 1: have been fortunate enough to carve a spot of time
Speaker 1: without your kids needing something or the neighbor mowing his lawn,
Speaker 1: you definitely don't want to distract yourself so to a
Speaker 1: few things. First, phone off or an airplane mode or
Speaker 1: in the next room. Nothing will happen in the next
Speaker 1: twenty minutes. If you want to make it seem like
Speaker 1: there is a plausible reason for not having your phone on,
Speaker 1: you will go plug the phone into an outlet that's
Speaker 1: in the next room. Now, if you get an urge
Speaker 1: to look at something, you'll probably think twice since it
Speaker 1: will involve standing up, shut anything on your laptop that
Speaker 1: you are not actively using, and then make what I
Speaker 1: call a later list. As you are engaged in deep
Speaker 1: work and thoughts, like I need to move the laundry
Speaker 1: pop unbidden into your head. Right These on the later list.
Speaker 1: You will get to them later. I'm guessing you'll take
Speaker 1: a break in the next hour or so we generally do,
Speaker 1: which would be a great time to move the laundry.
Speaker 1: It will still be there, but you won't have chopped
Speaker 1: up your focus. You should use this later list even
Speaker 1: if the thought that pops into your head is work related. Yes,
Speaker 1: you might need a statistic your colleague emails you for
Speaker 1: this report. Yes, you know that statistic is in an
Speaker 1: email that your colleagues sent. But here's the problem. If
Speaker 1: you head into your inbox to retrieve that statistic, you
Speaker 1: won't exit immediately. You will stick around to see what
Speaker 1: else is in your inbox, and whoops, there goes your
Speaker 1: focus time. So instead, just work around it. You might
Speaker 1: write to come as the journalists say, t K for short,
Speaker 1: and yes that is misspelled, don't ask, or put X
Speaker 1: goes here or some such. Put the thing you are
Speaker 1: searching for on your later list and you can get
Speaker 1: it when you take a scheduled break. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: you can push through and get a lot more done.
Speaker 1: The world is already very distracting. Do yourself a favor
Speaker 1: and don't make the problem worse than it already is.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod.
Speaker 1: That's B the number four, then Breakfast p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: podcast at iHeartMedia dot com. That Before Breakfast is spelled
Speaker 1: out with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look
Speaker 1: forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production
Speaker 1: of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.