How many times have you gotten online to do “just one thing”.
You know:
Just to check your email to hear back from your friend that you are meeting up next week for dinner.
Just to log on to Twitter to leave a witty yet thoughtful Tweet that everyone will swoon over.
Just to watch that five minute funny video on YouTube that everyone has been telling you about.
Just one thing.
Just one thing turns into just one hundred things…and an hour has passed by. Or worse - an entire day.
One hour that you will never get back again. One day that you will never get back again.
I still have some days where I’ll surf mindlessly, but I have gotten better over time.
I spent most of my life getting things done at the absolute last minute. I put off work at jobs and in school until the absolute final moment…or even asked for an extension. But over the past 5 years I have taught myself to work the other way around.
Start with the work. It makes the pleasure a thousand times more fun.
Here’s what is funny - I love my work now! I love writing blog posts. I love answering emails. I love working on recipes, or writing articles for magazines. And I still get distracted. In the world we live in it is hard sometimes to not get distracted.
Here’s a simple and quick step by step guide on how to deal with online distractions. You want to take care of these distractions before you’ve realized 10 years have gone by and you still haven’t finished your Great American Novel. Or the Great American Email. Or maybe just a meager day of work:
How to Handle An Online Distraction Moment
1. Acknowledge the Distraction. Once you notice that you have been distracted, give it your full attention. At this moment you have snapped yourself out of the trance called the Internet. Welcome back to the real world!
2. Figure out how much time you spent on your distraction. Look at the clock, and say out loud to yourself how much time you have spent doing whatever it is you have been doing. Examples: “I have just spent an hour catching up on Twitter.” “I have just spent 45 minutes watching YouTube.” “I have just spent 6 hours on Facebook.”
3. Forgive yourself. Do this now before you start beating yourself up. You have to forgive yourself for this time, because beating yourself up for wasting time on the Internet is not going to help you. And if you keep getting mad at yourself, the problem could get worse.
4. Calm your mind for one minute. Pull yourself away from your environment for just one minute. Close your eyes. Take a short walk. Go find the most quiet place you can find around you. There. Now just give yourself peace and quiet for 60 seconds.
5. Get back to your focus. Ask yourself: What do you need to get done today? What do you want to get done today? These are two very different things. I want to do a zillion things in one day, but in reality I have found it is better for me to focus on three main objectives for one day. Figure out what you need to get done. Write it down.
6. Commit to yourself that you will get your work done. Whatever you have decided what you need to do in step #5, tell yourself that you are going to get it done. Imagine that you are working on the task. Imagine now that you have finished your task. And now, imagine how good it feels to get that task completed.
7. Put on your blinders. This is where you have to build up your discipline. This is the time to put yourself into the zone. If you feel you must, go find one of those website blocking programs out there. Lifehacker.com has many recommendations. A simple Google search will help you to…but I’d rather not use those site blocking systems. It is better to build up your own discipline than to have websites treating you like you are a naughty child. So put on your blinders to outside distractions, and move on to..
8. Get back to work. The best way to get back to work after being distracted is to work on something that motivates you the most. If you have multiple tasks to get done, choose the one you are most inspired to work on first. For more information on how to maximize the effectiveness of your to-do list, I highly recommend the Autofocus System by Mark Forester.
9. Review Your Day. At the end of the day, take a mental time machine and look at your entire day. Look at the situation, and see if you can find what distracted you in the first place. What got you started on that web surfing rampage? Was it one particular website? Maybe it is that one person who keeps emailing you links that are sure to make you laugh, but they also waste your time. Once you can start to notice a pattern, you can start to learn what you can do personally in your own unique situation to avoid a web surfing time suck in the future.
Prevention is the Best Medicine
Now that you know how to handle online distractions AFTER you have been distracted, tomorrow I will share steps to prevent getting distracted in the first place!
~ Heidi