By Ahmed al-Akber/Manama
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit, so said Aristotle.
How do we make ideas happen? Have you ever heard someone say they always wanted to do something, such as start a business or write a book (or anything that would positively improve their marketing results) only to see them never get around to doing it? Part of the reason could be that they are too distracted by other things that encroach on their daily lives.
The human mind is incredibly susceptible to distraction, especially when you are trying to be creative. It is just so much easier to pick up a phone call from someone or answer an e-mail than it is to sit quietly, undistracted, and to focus on something proactive until it gets done.
Overcoming distractions: There are many distractions at our fingertips today. Social media, instant messaging, the Internet. All it takes is a ping or a whistle from one of these apps and our attention gets diverted from what we were meant to do. We tell ourselves that we will take a short “break” of one or two minutes, but these can take several minutes to get your mind focused back on what you were doing before being distracted.
And being distracted is not only the problem – so can the process of resisting the urge to be distracted also be a problem, research by the University of Copenhagen found. Some participants who were asked to perform a task on a computer were then exposed to a funny video, while others were faced with a play button for the video, but had to resist playing it. The group was then asked to perform an additional task afterward. Those that resisted watching the video performed worse in this task than those that were allowed to watch it.
So it’s not simply a matter of overcoming distractions as it is to prevent them in the first place. If you have to, change your usual place of work to somewhere where there are less distractions. I tend to switch off my devices until I’m done with my critical assignments and then reward myself by connecting to social media and other channels.
The multitasking myth: The human brain can only concentrate on one thing at a time. There is a large amount of evidence that shows that multitasking is ineffective. Take writing an email while taking a phone call. According to John Medina, author of Brain Rules, It can take up to 50% longer to accomplish those tasks than if they were done separately, and studies show that the brain makes about four times more errors switching between tasks than not.
It certainly does feel productive to carry out multiple tasks simultaneously, but to what end if you are not achieving the right results?
The hangover effect: Letting go of unfinished challenges is not that easy to do. Your mind continues to try to solve them even after you have stopped working on them. Dr Chrisitian Jarrett, co-author of Manage Your Day-To-Day, describes this as the hangover effect: “They continue to draw on our mental resources even after we think we’ve switched focus. What’s more, attempting to ignore this mental tug drains us even further.”
Jarrett encourages readers to find a place to stop at while working on the project. One that can easily convince your brain that you are done with the project for now, until you next have it scheduled to pick it up again.
Daily focus blocks: To achieve anything worthwhile, you have to have the ability to have your mind focus. There is no better method I know than to have daily focus blocks. This technique builds-off of the pre-scheduled appointment. You simply block the daily chunks of time you need to carry out your project in your calendar, and make sure it is followed.
Anyone that requests your attention or presence during those times are asked to schedule at another date.
During this time, you must resist distraction: email, phone, social media, and Internet should be off and hidden away. Cal Newport, co-author of Manage Your Day-To-Day has these tips to ensure you overcome distractions:
lStart small, and work your way up. Start with a small amount of time, such as an hour, and build from there. Add 15 minutes every week or two, till you have enough time in your daily focus block to do something significant. If you get distracted during that time, cancel the whole block and try again later. Your mind can never come to believe that even a little bit of distraction is okay during these blocks.
lTackle something concrete. Use the focus block to tackle something concrete (such as writing an article). Make sure you know what you want to achieve by the time the focus block’s time is up.
lUse different locations. Move to another room or do something as simple as closing the door to your office during the focus block time. If your online access is off during this time (such as phone calls and emails), then your o-ffline access should be the same.
*Ahmed al-Akber is the managing director of ACK Solutions, a firm that helps companies to improve their marketing and sales results by offering more effective ways attracting customers and significantly better products and services. Ahmed has worked internationally in marketing, sales, and strategic planning at companies such as the Coca-Cola Company, Philip Morris International and Dell. Questions or comments can be sent to Ahmed on [email protected]
