Does this ever happen to you? You go into your office determined to accomplish something on your high priority project. The day flies by, and when it’s over, you didn’t accomplish anything you had planned. What did you do? You answered emails, posted on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn as well as read discussions and replied to the discussions. The day is over; you feel tired, but not because you accomplished what you set out to do. You were overtaken by the seemingly innocent actions of distracting yourself from working.
So, why is it that we get distracted? There are a ton of books and articles written about how to organize your calendar and do list so that you get things done. None of them actually address distraction, and what to do about it when it overtakes you.
Being distracted may be a positive signal to you that you are stuck in your project and really don’t know what to do next. It may give you the relief that you want from facing the truth that you are stuck. As entrepreneurs, we do not want to admit that we don’t know what to do. We actually do think we are Mighty Mouse and will always show up to save the day. And sometimes we do, and other times we don’t, because we are stuck.
The next time you are hit by the distraction bug, try this: say to yourself, “I am distracting myself instead of working.” Ask the question, “Why is that?” Then take some time to truly come up with some answers to the why question. In fact, for every answer that you come up with, ask yourself, “Why?” as in “Why do I think that?” After about 5 authentic whys and legitimate answers, you will come up with the root cause of the problem. It is pretty clear that if you can recognize the root of the problem then you can address it, fix it, and move on. You will actually work on resolving the roadblocks that are stopping you from completing your project.
In the comments below, please let me know how you avoid distracting yourself and when you are distracted, what you do about it. I am looking forward to hearing from you.
