I want you to think about the kind of the things that make you distracted at work, that are down to you and nobody else.

-       Are you distracted because you didn’t get enough sleep last night and now, you’re struggling to focus?

-       Are you distracted because your mind is tied up in 15 different places and you can’t decide which one needs your attention first?

-       Does your phone keep lighting up with those notifications that you just can’t leave alone? (no judgements, I can’t leave them alone either!) 

How many minutes/hours of your day do you think are wasted on distractions? How many times per day do you open your phone to check the time but somehow wind up in a 15-minute Instagram hole and still don’t know what the time is when you put your phone down causing you to pick it up again? (Guilty).

If the last Working Well Blog didn’t change your life with its Scroll Free September working tips, this one most certainly will.

 1. Turn off notifications. Do it. See how it feels to not be drawn to your phone every time that little light comes on or the screen lights up. It’s freeing!

2. Did you know it takes our brains 60 – 90 minutes to switch off from the stimuli of screen time? So, if you’re wondering why it takes you forever to fall asleep that could be a reason. The second one, and we’re all guilty of it, is ending up in a social media scroll hole, committing ourselves until 10.30pm then you check the time and it’s 10.33pm so you may as well have until 11pm now... and so on and so on until it’s 2am and you couldn’t explain to someone where the time has gone even if you wanted to. 

Ready for this tip, it’s revelational. NO SCREENS IN THE BEDROOM. 

I know, I know. You’ve heard that one before but sleep is the time when our brain does all the behind the scenes work, for anyone who has seen the movie Inside Out, it’s the time when the workers come to organise what has happened that day into categories and move them into long term memory. If we don’t allow our brains the time to sufficiently do its job, we’re going to be behind schedule and we’re still going to have those subconscious things to work through the next day.

1. Mind tied up in all the different ways, not sure which tasks to tackle first or so jumbled inside the list that you don’t know where to start?

WRITE IT DOWN. All of it. At the beginning of your day, grab your pen and paper and pull it all from your brain out in ink. Then begin to organise on the paper rather than in your head, it’s way easier to categorise your priorities this way. (especially if you’re an external processor like me!) 

Let us know how these tips work for you and if you have any tips or tricks to keep distractions to a minimum and motivation to the max!