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| Source: www.bostonglobe.com |
Have you ever sat down to complete a task and ended up wasting hours doing something completely different? It happened with me too. Getting distracted while studying/working is a very common occurrence for everyone, especially in this time and age. More often than not, we end up spending hours on our smartphones even though we picked them up only for a few minutes. However, there are ways to decrease, if not eliminate, these distractions:
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| Source: www.zenatwork.co.uk |
- Keep Your Goals In Mind: Whenever you sit down to do something, keep your long-term goals in mind. What are you aiming towards? Do you wish to be an athlete? A musician? A writer? Whatever the goal may be, if you are focused on your destination, then you can work through the rough patches when you’re feeling low on motivation. Lack of motivation is one of the main causes of getting distracted.
- Prioritize: Before beginning your day, narrow down your To-Do list to the essential tasks that must be completed. Completing a few tasks is better than accomplishing nothing just because you took on too much work too soon. With time increase your work load. It’ll do wonders in achieving your daily goals.
- Be Realistic: While deciding on the tasks to be completed, be realistic. If you think you can complete 10-15 tasks in a day without being distracting, then that’s a folly. Consider your motivation and speed when choosing tasks. Pick a few really important ones to be completed first.
- Complete Tasks ASAP: This point is linked to the previous two. Now that you’ve decided on a few must-be-done-today tasks, wrap them up as soon as possible. It’ll help you be more productive and if you’ve more time left on your hands, then you can accomplish additional tasks which is always good!
- Control Internal Distractions: Almost all of us have a habit of day dreaming when we should be working. Getting swept away in our imagination severely eats into our productivity especially when it’s not related to the task at hand. So whenever you catch yourself drifting away, shake yourself clear of the distracting thoughts. Try and concentrate on your task. After a few times, it will get easier to control your mind.
- Remove Internal Distractions: If you get distracted by your phone or TV or laptop easily while trying to work then eliminate these distractions. Switch off your phone or get anything that distracts you out of your sight. Follow the principle of ‘Out of sight, out of mind.’
- Manage Your Momentum: You may start out strong when you sat down to work, but it’s inevitable to lose steam after a while. Learn to pace yourself. Work at a speed that you can maintain and still complete all the tasks that you’ve decided to finish that day.
- Don’t Procrastinate: Do not put off anything. If you’ve set yourself 4 tasks in a day then complete them on the same day. Do not postpone them to the next day. Postponing them is the start of a vicious circle and you will never be able to achieve your quota of the day because you’ll be too busy finishing up the previous ones! How to overcome procrastination?
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| Source: www.giphy.com |
Don’t lose hope if you fall behind on your task list because of distractions. Rome wasn’t built in a day. It takes time to form habits and all you need to do is work on developing a good working routine that you can be interested in.
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About the Author
Arshi Gupta is a young blogger who loves to travel to unexplored places to get a feel of different cultures. She is interested in reading, photography and binge-watching TV shows & movies. Though Your D.O.S.T she would like to share her thoughts to youth of the Nation.