I once heard a story about an author who had designed a house especially to be used for writing. The house was built on a mountain and had an impressive view of the valley and mountains beyond.
The author had designed an office especially for writing. It had large windows overlooking the gorgeous view. Facing the windows was an expansive desk where the author planned to write many books. However, there was just one problem.
After moving into the house, the author discovered that he couldn’t get any work done. He would sit at his desk overlooking the gorgeous view, but he just couldn’t concentrate. It turned out that the view wasn’t inspiring him. It was just a distraction.
There are a lot of things that can distract us from operating at our peak productivity. Sometimes these distractions come from the outside. Long-winded co-workers, annoying dorm mates, and screaming kids are easy to see as distractions. The distractions that are the most harmful are the ones we create for ourselves. It is hard to list these types of distractions because they are different for every person.
Here is a list of common things that may be a distraction for some people:
- Screen savers
- Desktop wallpaper
- Listening to music while trying work
- Desk decorations
- A running television
- Instant messaging
- Email notification
- The view outside your window
- A stack of mail
- News alerts
The point is that, while many of these things aren’t bad, to certain people they can be distractions that prevent reaching an optimal level of concentration. You have to determine for yourself if something is having a negative impact on your productivity.
Back to the story of the author, he finally found a way to get back his productivity. He simply turned his desk around to face the wall.
Originally published December 20, 2006.
just recently a friend & colleague, who is also an avid blogger were discussing the distractions in blogs..
posts that link to some other blog which inturn link to some other blog, and by the time you are done the main message from the initial post is lost. you get distracted by the other (and seemingly more important) posts which are being referred to by the authors.
the other thing was about a lot of professional bloggers who also put in personal-life related posts. now thats not a bad thing – but i really didnt subscribe to the person’s feed for his personal-life updates. this too seems like a distraction from the main essence of the blog. (my blog too does that – but i am not an expert and i am sure no one looks up to my thoughts as reference material :))….We discussed and found that tag/category based RSS feeds and aggregation is one solution – but that seems not so widespread right now.
I really like the program Rescue Time, if you are into cutting out distractions that breaks down all the things you use on the computer and how much time spent!
Good idea for our author :)
For example, I like listening music while I am working, but, sometimes, I simply cannot focus on my work because of music (it depends a lot of my mood)
For clients who like to have a “distraction”, I suggest classical music or opera. I actually wasn’t fond of either kink of music until I realized how much it helps me concentrate. If I put on my favorite music I would spend my time singing to it and not concentrating on the task at hand.