[00:00] Welcome back to the Focus B show. This is Katie Sudddhart here aka the focus b. And on this show I interview high performers and leaders around the world to discover their secrets on peak performance, productivity, mindfulness and leadership. So if you want to take your performance and your leadership to the next level, then you're in the right place. Listen up and connect with the magic.
[00:36] How to Master Distractions I feel this is such a common topic. So many people want to know how to manage distractions in today's world. Well, first and foremost, we need to look at what are distractions? What does distraction even mean? And I love NIR Ayal's definition of this. I love his perspective on it that he explains in his book Indistractable, which is that a distraction is what goes against traction. Traction is your intention. It's what you want to do for the day. It's what you want to do right now for this hour. It's what you've set out to do. So knowing what you want to spend your time on, knowing where your attention wants to go. And distraction is what maybe you end up doing instead. Let's say you want to work on a specific project or report and you start to work on it and then you open social media. In this case, social media is the distraction. Now, on the other hand, if you've decided to create social media content for an hour and you start doing that and then you open the report, then the report is a distraction. So it really is about the perspective and it's a lot less about the activity. As such, we often think of emails, the phone, social media as distractions. They're only distractions if they're taking you away from that traction, from that intention. One of the best ways to master distractions is firstly to know what is that traction, what is your intention? And this is where so many people struggle because they're not really clear on how they want to spend their time, on what they want to do, how they want to put their attention for the day. And they'll open up their email, start doing something there, then they'll check something else and they'll do that for a bit, then they'll remember something and they'll start doing that. Where's the intention there? What did they want to do at that moment? This is one of the first obstacles, a total lack of clarity when it comes to the distractions and to what the person actually wants to be doing. The second greatest obstacle here is the fact that often distractions come from emotions. Again, as Nirayal said, time management is pain management because we choose distractions because we're uncomfortable or bored or frustrated or upset or impatient. And with these emotions, we don't know what to do, we don't know how to manage them. And so we'll seek a quick dopamine fix by scrolling through Instagram. And I don't know if you've noticed this, but it doesn't help. It mindly sort of numbs that feeling for a bit and then it's so much harder to get back to work or to get back to what you're doing. You just want to continue scrolling or open something else up. And it doesn't really feel satisfying. It doesn't really work except that on the moment it distracts you a bit from that thought or that pain or that emotion. But there's a greater consequence to this that is that as you're not processing these emotions, as they're coming through, they start to bottle up and you get more and more and more because you're not processing them as they come in. If you received an email that annoyed you in the morning, you felt annoyed and then you went on social media and then your boss sent something and that frustrated you. And then you scrolled through your emails and then a friend canceled on you for the evening and you felt upset about it. And then you arrive back home in the evening and you're in a bad mood and you don't know why. Worse than this. It can bottle up. Bottle up over days and months, lead to burnout, lead to overwhelm, lead to depression. And all that is, is lack of confronting these emotions. So the real issue with distractions isn't lack of productivity. Yes, you lose a bit of time, you lose some attention, you don't do your best performance at work. The real issue is the emotional instability that comes from it. Because you're not confronting these emotions, because you're not processing what's going on in your life, then it adds up. What's the solution here? What can you do about this? On the moment when something upsets you, when something makes you sad, upset, annoyed, frustrated, impatient, bored, confront it, don't avoid it, don't feel that urge. Pause, breathe. That's it. I guarantee problem solved. Obviously it's not that simple. Some issues can take a while to process, depending on the magnitude. But all you need to do is to pause when you're about to answer that email in anger, when you're about to respond, when you're about to check your social media, your phone, whatever it is, pause, breathe. Look what's going on inside, see how you're feeling. Why did it bother you so most? Why did it trigger you? Maybe go for a mini walk, drink a tea, don't go on your phone, don't go on social media, don't click frantically everyone on your computer or your tablet, or just be. I guarantee that if you're able to master this ability of pause and to master this ability of dealing with that discomfort and those emotions that are coming through, you'll never be distracted. This idea of you can use tools fantastic, you can use all these different tricks and tips. All you really need to learn is to be present with your emotions and to breathe through them and to accept them and not run away and I know that when you're listening or seeing this, it rings true. Because I remember when I first heard this perspective and I thought, yes, of course. Every single time I get distracted or do something else, it's because of that. Boredom, impatience, I'm not getting into flow, frustration, lack of clarity. So that's the only tip, that's the only trick. Why do so many people struggle? Because they build the habit of distraction. They need to change that habit. And because they're not used to pausing. We're in a world that's so fast paced. Constant motion, constant go go pause feels uncomfortable. And if it's something that's quite heavy to digest, you might get a call that really upset you or something that you really wanted it to work out and it hasn't worked out, or get some feedback that was also upsetting, then the pause might take more than two minutes, might need to get up again. Like I said, go for a walk. Maybe sometimes even there's a big mental shift or transition in your life and you need to take a week off or a few days off or block your weekends and go for a long walk in nature. Some pauses take time, depending on what it is, because going through these emotions can take some time. This is really how you become indistractable through this presence, through this ability to confront the emotions, to confront those thoughts and not escape it. If you think about it, if you look at the definition of distraction against the traction, then you can see that it's a form of escapism. And we know that, we know that we're escaping when we're distracting ourselves and instead practicing, practicing to come back to the present, to come back to whatever discomfort there is. And I feel that today's world is a world of distraction because people are avoiding and escaping. Mild anxiety, depression, lack of meaning, all these sort of things that are popping up and that are so big and so uncomfortable that people just choose to evade. Don't. You're missing out on life. That's not how you want to spend your time. That's not how you want to place your attention. It's not just about the work performance. It's also about how you want to spend your time. When you're off. If you're with your friends and family, you want to be fully there, not scrolling your phone at the same time. You want to give people that you love and care about all of your attention. So don't escape. Use that time and attention in the way that makes you feel good, in the way that you want to spend it. The biggest distraction of all is that necessity to escape. Once you master that, you'll never feel distracted again. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. I know I didn't share all the usual tips and tricks. I've shared them many times before. Like I said, I feel that distraction is only through the lack of confrontation of our emotions, our emotional state and whatever that's coming up, that's mildly unpleasant. Master this and you've got it. You will become totally indestructible. Thank you so much for tuning in. Hope you enjoyed today's episode. Let me know in the comments or in a review what you've learned from today, how you're going to apply this in your life. Thank you once more for being here, wishing you a fantastic, magical day ahead.
[11:08] Thank you so much for tuning in today to the Focus Bee show. I would absolutely love to hear your feedback, so let me know in an Apple review or YouTube comment what was most valuable for you, and feel free to share this episode with a friend or a family member. Wishing you a wonderful, magical and focused day ahead.