WEBVTT - What you don't know can't distract you

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

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<v Speaker 1>Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

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<v Speaker 1>Today's tip is that what you don't know can't distract you.

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<v Speaker 1>By reducing the number of audio and visual notifications you get,

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<v Speaker 1>you can increase the chances that you focus on whatever

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<v Speaker 1>you choose to focus on. I don't have to tell

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<v Speaker 1>anyone listening to this podcast that the world can be

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<v Speaker 1>a distracting place. Our phones and laptops can wind up

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<v Speaker 1>dinging all day long, to say nothing of people popping by. Now.

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<v Speaker 1>To be clear, sometimes things that look like distractions are

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<v Speaker 1>just the nature of collaboration or building your relationships. If

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<v Speaker 1>you work at home, I would suggest not scheduling anything

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<v Speaker 1>unin corruptible for the moment your kids get off the bus.

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<v Speaker 1>They might want to tell you about their days, and

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<v Speaker 1>planning for that is probably better than viewing that as

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<v Speaker 1>a distraction. And if you work at home, you actually

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<v Speaker 1>do want your colleagues to reach out to you if

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<v Speaker 1>doing so means that you are not a bottleneck, or

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<v Speaker 1>if you're able to redirect something that would take a

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<v Speaker 1>long time to unwind. That said, none of this is

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<v Speaker 1>either or, and many of the things that distract us

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<v Speaker 1>do not rise to that level of necessity. The key

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<v Speaker 1>is minimizing the unimportant distractions so that you have more

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<v Speaker 1>bandwidth for getting your work done and properly responding too

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<v Speaker 1>important interactions. So think about what generally happens when you

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<v Speaker 1>get distracted. I know that for many people, being able

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<v Speaker 1>to see that there are unread messages piling up in

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<v Speaker 1>your inbox can make you feel empty. If this is

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<v Speaker 1>happening on your laptop or desktop, one easy way to

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<v Speaker 1>avoid this feeling is to expand whatever you are working

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<v Speaker 1>on to fill the entire screen. Now you can't see

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<v Speaker 1>the rising number, or the bolded messages, or anything else

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<v Speaker 1>you are still logged in in case this is an

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<v Speaker 1>issue for you, but what you don't know can't distract you.

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<v Speaker 1>I would also suggest being judicious about your phone. Make

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<v Speaker 1>sure you have turned off alerts from apps you really

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<v Speaker 1>don't need to know a baseball score or most headlines

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<v Speaker 1>in the middle of a workday when you are trying

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<v Speaker 1>to focus. The trickier area is texts and calls. These days,

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<v Speaker 1>if someone is calling you, it might be a colleague

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<v Speaker 1>who really does need your quick input on something. Indeed,

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<v Speaker 1>many of us tell our colleagues call if it's urgent.

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<v Speaker 1>So one approach is to set your phone to send

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<v Speaker 1>just unknown numbers straight to voicemail, so you don't hear

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<v Speaker 1>a ring for SPAN calls. That way, you are only

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<v Speaker 1>hearing a ring when it is people you probably do

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<v Speaker 1>wish to hear from. Then look at your text chains.

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<v Speaker 1>Any highly active ones that tend not to be urgent

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<v Speaker 1>can be put into quiet mode. They'll still be there,

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<v Speaker 1>and when you choose to pick up your phone, you

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<v Speaker 1>can see that you have forty texts, and you will

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<v Speaker 1>know that the neighborhood association is still figuring out how

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<v Speaker 1>to get people to bring their trash cans in quickly

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<v Speaker 1>after the trash pickup, but you won't hear the digging

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<v Speaker 1>forty times. I'd say this can even be true with

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<v Speaker 1>colleague group texts. Go ahead and make any of them

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<v Speaker 1>quiet that you don't think are going to be urgent.

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<v Speaker 1>You might be wrong, but most of us pick up

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<v Speaker 1>our phones every thirty minutes or so. Anyway, The goal

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<v Speaker 1>is to get to the end of those thirty minutes

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<v Speaker 1>without having distracted yourself for anything that is not worth

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<v Speaker 1>distracting yourself for now. I know that many of us

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<v Speaker 1>wind up distracting ourselves in various ways, and we need

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<v Speaker 1>to work on that too, But limiting the inputs can

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<v Speaker 1>help a lot. We can't get rid of all of them,

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<v Speaker 1>but we can definitely get rid of some of them.

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<v Speaker 1>What you don't know can't distract you, and in the

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<v Speaker 1>war for attention, every little victory matters. In the meantime.

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<v Speaker 1>This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making

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<v Speaker 1>the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to

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<v Speaker 1>hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,

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<v Speaker 1>or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook

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<v Speaker 1>and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod that's b the number four,

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<v Speaker 1>then breakfast po deep. You can also shoot me an

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<v Speaker 1>email at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeartMedia dot com. That

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<v Speaker 1>Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks

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<v Speaker 1>so much, I look forward to staying in touch. Before

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<v Speaker 1>Breakfast is a production of I Heart Radio. For more

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<v Speaker 1>podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app,

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<v Speaker 1>Ye