Recent Experience: The Pickup Music Group

Recently I was asked to help with the music for a Sunday service. I had some ideas that would involve some folk music and would need the cooperation of several of our musicians, who had not worked together in this combination before. It was a bit of work – besides the usual learning of parts of rehearsals, one of the pieces had to have individual parts extracted from a score.

It took a lot of my time during a month that was already filled to the brim, but it was a success. The Sunday service went without a hitch. The group text exploded the next day with ideas about how we could all work together again and what songs we could attempt.

And when I say exploded, I had to mute it after I got 37 texts in a single hour while I was at work. I didn’t respond. I was tired from the efforts and I wasn’t eager to sign up for major amounts of work tracking down music and sorting out parts.

What Are Boundaries?

According to Merriam-Webster, boundaries are “something that indicates or fixes a limit or extent”. In terms of personal boundaries, Psych Central has a good definition: “Personal boundaries are simply the lines we draw for ourselves in terms of our level of comfort around others.”

For those people who don’t have a grasp of how boundaries work, they take these two definitions and try and inflict their will and control on other people. As in the statement “I will not allow you to raise your voice at me.”

The truth is, we have no control over what others do and how they behave toward us. Boundaries have to be for ourselves, what we will do in response to a situation.

Wikipedia has the best definition of personal boundaries I have seen: “Personal boundaries are established by changing one’s own response to interpersonal situations, rather than expecting other people to change their behaviors to comply with your boundary.”

Forms of Boundaries

Boundaries can come in all sorts of actions. Sometimes it may be physical, as in removing oneself from a place. My boundary of not being sworn at or being called names means that when this happens I leave the room.

Sometimes boundaries come in multiple steps. Warning shots, so to speak. My first level boundary of someone putting their hands on me without permission is to tell them to remove their hands. The second level boundary is to take whatever physical action is necessary to free myself. I haven’t had to do this in years, but an abusive relative found out that when I kneed them in the nether regions when they wouldn’t release my arm.

Boundaries can come in much subtler forms too. One of my boundaries that if conversation starts up in our shared office space, I will pull out my noise cancelling headphones.

Fixed Versus Flexible Boundaries

I’ve heard many people say that all boundaries should be flexible, in that they should take the factors into account, such as where you are, how you are feeling, etc.

I call BS on that. I believe that it is important to have fixed boundaries that set a baseline for survival. As the survivor of a childhood with an physically abusive father, one of my fixed boundaries is that if I am in a situation where I am being physically attacked, I give myself permission to use whatever means to get out of the situation. Having these things decided ahead of time means I can react instead of thinking first.

For the stuff that is not tied to survival, I think one needs to have some flexibility.

If I am having a hard time sleeping and my husband is snoring, I will go to the guest room. Some nights the snoring doesn’t bother me – it depends on my mental and emotional state.

If I am overwhelmed and stressed out, I remove myself into my writing studio. The sign on the door gets flipped to “do not disturb”. Some times I don’t have go to that far into isolation and sitting on the screen porch is enough.

How To Use Boundaries

Boundaries are really good for keeping my level of commitments in check.

I decide how I feel about the situation, what it requires of me, and what I can handle at the moment.

This allows me to be more serene in my day, and keeps me out of situations that I don’t need to be in.

The Calendar Boundary Example

One of my boundaries (recent) is that I don’t say yes to anything unless I check the physical calendar at home first. This year at a glance calendar lists all of the upcoming trips, appointments, and major due dates for projects. I also allows me to visualize the lead time. After discovering that I was overwhelmed because people had asked me to do things far in advance, this was needed to help me see the load.

So when someone says “can you work on the church membership software?” I first ask for a scope of work and a deadline, and then I say “I will check my calendar and let you know tomorrow.”

The Boundary For the Music Group

Eventually the text storm died down in the group chat. I still didn’t respond. The threads where filled with “we should do X piece” or “wouldn’t it be fun to do Y”. As long as it wasn’t in commitment, my boundary was to not respond (and keep it muted).

Finally, someone said, “I want to do the big piece for the talent show on June 20th. Who’s willing?” 4 people said “I’m in.”

Even though they gave a date, I didn’t use my calendar boundary. I reflected that I really don’t like performing all that much, and this particular piece takes a lot of time and energy. While I don’t mind using my talents in support of Sunday services, I have no desire to exhibit my talents in general. So my answer was “I’m out.”

Yes, I knew I was disappointing the group because my part was crucial to the performance. But that is not a reason for me to commit to something I really didn’t want to do.

In Conclusion

I’m getting better at identifying my boundaries, and actually putting them into place in order to protect my time and energy. Have you considered boundaries as part of your strategy to living a deliberate life on your own terms?

The post The Power of Saying No: Boundaries as a Productivity Superpower appeared first on Laura Earnest.

My Current Inbox Management

I have been very good about keeping my inbox empty for years. And that is because I recognized long ago that things lingering in the inbox are simply procrastination on my part. I didn’t even want to take the effort to make an entry in my task list to do the action.

I solved this issue by programming GMail. Now when things are assigned a label, programming comes behind and makes an entry in my task list. So if I assign an email “Read” it will put an entry in Remember The Milk called “Read” and then the subject line, then moves the email to a to-be-read label in Gmail. I have various labels: Enter, Read, Respond, Act.

It’s a good system and I just have to assign a label and it is done. Out of the inbox, into my task management with links back to the email.

Recent Piles of Email

Recently, though, I have noticed that email is piling up in my inbox. And when I apply my label method above to clear it out, I didn’t feel relieved or satisfied. I felt a little bit of panic.

Why would I be anxious about an empty inbox?

I did some free writing on it, and realized that I have come to associate an empty inbox with nothing to do.

I had somehow internalized the belief equating emails with tasks.

But My Task Manager is Full!

The weirdest part of this is that I know I have plenty to do. My task manager is never empty, and I take care of all of those email-driven tasks every week. Besides having all of what I consider “maintenance” tasks in my lists, that is all the tasks that repeat that keep my life running smoothly, I also have all the tasks for the projects I am working on.

So where was this belief coming from?

Email Addiction?

I began to see that I was checking email all the time. I had drifted away from checking personal email at the beginning of the day and in the evening to checking out of boredom. Always on my phone, because the urge doesn’t hit when I am on the computer.

When I was seeing email in the inbox, even though it was not new, I got some sort of satisfaction. When it was empty, I was disappointed.

Even the thrill of marking things as spam was fueling this urge.

Why Now?

I also realized why I was using email in this capacity. I have blocked, limited or removed all time-wasters on my phone. This is a relatively new thing. And apparently when I picked up my phone out of habit, realizing I couldn’t play a game or whatever, I defaulted to email.

What I Did

So my non-empty inbox was signaling an addiction to email.

Ugh. I work very hard not to let low-value things suck away my time. So I applied two methods to this:

1. I added my email application to the Hidden section of my phone. Out of sight, out of mind.
2. I added my email application to the app that makes me pause after a minute and determine if I really want to be done it (OneSec).

Both of these things have stopped me from checking my email every time I pick up my phone.

Will Something Else Substitute?

I can’t think of any other app on my phone that would substitute for the blocked apps. I’m not going to obsess over my calendar, or text messages, or the weather. But if it comes up again I will see it for what it is.

In Conclusion

I was able to trace my full inbox back through my behavior to see that it resulted from removing other time-wasters from my phone. Armed with that knowledge, I was able to limit my email time.

The post What if a Full Inbox Isn’t Procrastination? appeared first on Laura Earnest.

Productivity: The Right Things Done Right

The whole basis of productivity is doing the right tasks and doing them in the best manner. It covers both efficiency and effectiveness.

In order to find the right things, though, it helps to periodically examine what we say no to. And a good way to do this is with a Things I Will Stop Doing List.

Things I Will Stop Doing

• Stop checking my email more than twice a day. I find myself checking when I am bored, when I am putting something off, or when I am just distracted. It takes way too much of my time. To stop this, I have added my email app to my Hidden apps. Out of sight, out of mind.
• Stop reading online news and Bored Panda. I can lose myself in both of these. The news makes me feel hopeless and Bored Panda makes me feel superior, in the sense that “at least my life isn’t like that.” To stop this, I have blocked news and Bored Panda on all devices using Screen Time and browser extensions.
• Stop surfing social media. I only use Instagram, but I can lose hours in that app. And even though I only stop for posts from my favorite new band (Sons of Legion) or cat videos, I am still be exposed to all the toxicity out there. To stop this, I have a hard limit set in Screen Time on my phone and a block in my computer browsers.
• Stop using the phone/Kindle after bedtime. I’m tired when I get to bed, but then I want to check the weather, perhaps check email, maybe play a game, read a book…and the next thing I know it’s two hours later. My Kindle now lives far away from my bed, and using a combination of focus time and home screen adjustment, it takes a lot of effort to get to anything other than Calm after bedtime.
• Stop hauling all the things around. I typically work in my bullet journal for planning and tracking; my daily planner for a focus list; a notebook for notes and ideas; an iPad for writing and research; and a notebook for the book I am writing. I don’t need these things all the time. I am trying to minimize what I carry around – even in my own house – by thinking about what I will accomplish rather than what I could accomplish.
• Stop reading books that suck. I keep telling myself this, but somewhere in my training lurks the belief that if it is published it is good. Not so. Many of the books that are deeply discounted or are on Kindle Unlimited are that way for a reason.
• Stop loading up my Kindle with books. It’s easy to get books on the Kindle because you can’t see them. But all I’m doing is adding to my already huge list of things to read. I recently canceled Kindle Unlimited because I found myself going there for new books even though I have a backlog of things to read.
• Stop doing things I don’t care about. I’ve really cut down my extracurriculars in the last couple years, but people still keep asking me to do things. I’m learning to say “let me think about it” and to make sure that people know that my silence is not agreement to do anything.
• Stop cutting myself short on sleep. I need sleep. I don’t get enough. ‘Nuff said. I’ve removed distractions from my bedroom and started using Calm to get me to sleep faster.
• Stop pushing myself beyond limits. I had a hard month with multiple medical procedures and a scare that they might have found another tumor (it wasn’t). I have been running on emotional boil-over for weeks. And I am exhausted. So I need to give myself some grace to rest and recover.
• Stop trying to do a dozen things at once. I have a lot of active projects. But if I list them all out every week, I start to freeze because I don’t know what to do next. So now I am working on one to two projects at a time that are not long-term (requiring small effort frequently). When those are complete I pick something else. I’m actually getting a lot more done.

In Conclusion

Ultimately, the path to being more productive isn’t about filling every gap with new strategies or hacks; it’s about having the courage to leave gaps empty. By consciously stopping the behaviors that drain us – whether it’s the endless scroll, the guilt of unfinished books, or the exhaustion of multitasking – we create the space necessary for deep work and genuine rest. This shift from accumulation to elimination doesn’t just reclaim our time; it restores our capacity to care about the few things that truly matter. In the end, doing less isn’t a compromise; it’s the only way to ensure that what we do is actually worth doing.

The post Be More Productive By Stopping appeared first on Laura Earnest.

Running Away Is Not A Solution

One of the jokes I used to make when faced with a less-than-pleasant client situation was to ask if I could run away and join the circus. This of course was back when there was still need for unskilled labor at a circus, because I have no acrobatic talent whatsoever. (I mean that. I broke a toe by tripping over nothing on a flat surface)

When I am faced with an overwhelming list of things to do, or I start to feel burnout creeping in, the first thing I want to do is run away.

And There You Are…

Unfortunately, running away doesn’t work in these cases. I know this because I have tried it more than once (it’s known as the “geographic cure” in some circles). I’ve noticed the tasks and projects just follow me. And to make matters worse, running away allows me to take on more projects and tasks, leading to more stress, and worsening the symptoms.

“Anywhere you go, there you are.” The Zen saying is one to remind us that we take ourselves with us always. We can’t escape from who we are, we can only change what we are doing in the moment.

So as much as running away to join the circus may appeal, it’s not an effective way to handle overwhelm.

Some Thoughts

The post Running Away Is Not A Solution appeared first on Laura Earnest.

My Previous Before Bed Routine

I had what would be on the surface a good before bed routine. I shower, allowing my body to relax. Then I climbed into bed with my Kindle, and used the sunset light on my clock* to tell me when to put the book down.

It all sounds very peaceful, right?

But the truth is that my Kindle is backlit and I would consistently read past the sunset light. Then I would stare at the ceiling and toss and turn as I either thought of the things from the day, or I thought about the book I was reading.

My sleep was averaging about 5 hours a night. I used both my FitBit and another app to measure the quality and duration of my sleep.

The Rise App Fiasco

I started seeing ads for the Rise app. This app was touted as helping you adjust your sleep start and end time to get the most out of your sleep time.

I wondered if it was a timing issue. I am a dolphin chronotype, and that means I struggle with sleep. But part of me wondered if timing would help. So I downloaded the app, and paid for a single month.

After the first night, it told me about how big my sleep deficit was. So I doubled down and getting to bed earlier the rest of the week. It barely made a dent in the deficit.

It was also telling me I wasn’t getting enough or high enough quality sleep. (Tell me something I didn’t know!)

In the end, the Rise app increased my stress levels about sleep, which then made it harder for me to sleep. I canceled my app 2 weeks in.

But Something Had To Give

I knew I couldn’t go back to the reading half the night scenario. So I decided to make a few changes.

I still get my shower, but then if it is early enough I will sit in a chair with a timer running and read for 15 minutes. Then I crawl into bed. No more reading in bed.

The changes I made for better sleep:

• Warm fuzzy socks*. Cold feet keep me from falling asleep.
• An eye mask/sleep shade*. This keeps all the light – including the light from my husband’s phone as he doomscrolls – from keeping me up. This particular shade has recesses for my eyes so it doesn’t press.
• Sleep stories on Calm with over the ear headphones*. The headphones force me to sleep on my back, but I inevitably wake up enough when the story is done to remove them. The Calm app gives me sleep stories that lull me to sleep within 10 minutes. My favorites are The Flying Scotsman and Whispers of a Scottish Castle.

The Results

I have been doing this new routine for a couple of months, and I am getting better and longer sleep (as determined by my Fitbit and other app). I won’t say that I am spry and chipper in the morning, but at least I feel somewhat rested. I haven’t been awake until 2 for months, and I feel much better.

The post Simple Changes For Better Sleep appeared first on Laura Earnest.

I have to have quiet time in my life. I am an introvert, and quiet time recharges me so that I can be around people. Take away my quiet time too long and the results are not pretty. I snarl when my reserves are too low.

So I have compiled my methods to get the quiet time I need to recharge, plan, focus, think, work and reboot. Here is my list of 10 Ways To Get Quiet Time For Focus.

Why Quiet Time?

Quiet time is essential if you are going to do any deep work. It’s a time when you can truly think things through, rather than moving from task to task without thinking about the whys and wherefores.

Yet quiet time can be difficult to get, especially if you work in a place that demands a lot of interaction, or if you have children at home.

Why It’s So Difficult

The difficulty in finding quiet time is compounded by our always-on society. The expectation is that people will respond to email, social media, phone calls, etc. as soon as they happen.

But all that reactivity gives other people the ability to direct your attention and thoughts. It’s big business, and the companies behind it are very good at it.

For introverts like me, this isn’t just sucking our attention. I require significant alone time in order to recharge.

It is possible to find quiet time, though. Below are 10 of my off-the-beaten-path methods that I have used to get that space in my life.

10 Ways To Find Quiet Time

The first two ways generally apply to everyone:

1. Off-limits Space

If you have a space of your own, you can tell people not to disturb you in that space. It doesn’t have to be big; it doesn’t even have to be permanent. I have a converted closet as my writing studio, and my family knows not to disturb me when I am in there unless there are flames or blood involved. Even going into a room with the door and closing it can work for this.

2. Get up Before Everyone Else

Let me state for the record: I am not a morning person. Yet getting up before everyone else, even on weekends, gives me a good hour to do some planning and thinking. I am a big fan of the SAVERS of the Miracle Morning*, and I use this as a springboard for planning the day and working on the latest novel.

3. Hire A Sitter

You don’t have to leave the house to use a sitter. Hiring a teenager to watch the kids with the instruction “Just make sure they don’t bother me” can give you a whole afternoon or evening. I used this method when I painted my young daughter’s room. The babysitter played with her outside, I got the work done.

4. Set The Expectation

This one can be used both at work and home. It’s about training your family and coworkers to know if you are available. This is not instantaneous, but once it is ingrained, you will have the time you need. It can be as simple as stating “don’t disturb me unless there are flames or blood,” or blocking out time on the calendar and closing the door.

5. Bathroom

This method works for small amounts of time, and usually as a stress relief.

When my daughter was in preschool, I envied people who could go to the bathroom undisturbed. Even now, the animals will try to get into the bathroom with me, so I have to make sure the door is closed and locked. But this strategy will also work at the office. Need to step away from the whirlwind of tasks and figure out what to do next? Do it in the bathroom.

6. Short Walk

Walks can blow away brain fog. They are also a good place to be alone. Need to think through something? Leave the headphones behind and do a productive meditation, walking and focusing on the issue at hand.

7. Go Somewhere at Lunch

It isn’t enough to go sit in your car. People will find you. Instead, go somewhere during your lunch break and get some quiet time. Some favorites for me have been the local coffee shop, the parking lot at the mall, the overflow parking lot of a museum, and the local bookstore.

8. Noise Cancelling Headphones

I love noise cancelling headphones. But here’s my secret: I don’t always have them attached to something. When people see that I have my headphones on, they assume I can’t hear them, because I won’t respond. I pointedly ignore them and blame it on the headphones. After a while, people will look to see if you are wearing them, and if so, come back later. The over-the-ear headphones work best for this.

9. “Conference Call”

My family and coworkers think I have quite a few conference calls. In reality, I am either sitting in a room getting things done, or sitting at my desk with my headphones plugged into the phone. I’m not sure why people are so hesitant to interrupt you while you’re on the phone, but they are. This takes advantage of this to get some quiet time.

10. Close The Door/Book A Conference Room

This works well at home and at the office. If you are lucky enough to have a room with a door that you can retreat to, you can do that, as long as you set expectations (blood and flames). However, you can also book conference rooms at work and get away from your desk to get some quiet time.

Conclusion

These are the 10 strategies I routinely use to get some quiet time for deep work, planning or thinking. Do you have any others? I would love to hear them. Share your strategies for getting quiet time in the comment section below.

The post 10 Ways To Find Quiet Time appeared first on Laura Earnest.

Why

I have noticed that mess attracts mess. If there is a dish soaking in the sink, dirty dishes will go into the sink even though the dishwasher is ready to accept them. When one afghan is crumpled on the couch, all the rest of them end up on the floor. When one piece of mail is left on the table, we soon have a pile of junk there.

How I Will Do This

My April challenge is to do a common area reset during the time that I am making my coffee. This means the fur repellent blankets are put back to cover the couch and loveseat, the blankets folded and put on the back where they belong, the kitchen island wiped down and all dirty dishes are in the kitchen (hopefully in the dishwasher but also possibly rinsed and stacked neatly in the sink)

The Reward

What this gives me is a less stressful morning. I don’t have to clean counters to make breakfast. I can sit on the couch to do my morning pages without having to straighten anything. The fur doesn’t collect as much on the furniture because they are more consistently covered.

An investment of at most 10 minutes to start my morning on a better foot.

The post April Monthly Challenge: Evening Reset appeared first on Laura Earnest.

1. Turn Off

Phone, email and instant messenger are interruptions on our end, but the people calling and sending might not realize they are interrupting. My solution: turn them off.

Before you start working on a task that requires time and concentration, exit your email and instant message programs, and send your phone to voice mail (or turn it off). The email and instant messages will be there when you return; and the phone calls will go to voice mail.

If you feel you need to let people know you are concentrating on a task, and not, say, out fishing, you can use some tricks to do this:

• Email auto-responders: every modern email program I have seen has some form of out-of-office feature. You can turn this on and let people know you will be checking your email at a certain time, and will get back to them after that.
• Instant Message Tag Line: Most instant message statuses include some way to put a tag line in. Before you exit the program, change yours to indicate your are busy but will be back online at a certain time.
• Phone Greetings: Setting up voice mail greetings is not difficult. Change yours to indicate that you are busy and you will return all calls after a certain time.
• Telling People: When I need some time to focus, I will send an IM to the team chat telling them that I am turning off IM and email and that I will be back online at such-and-such time. I tell them that if there is an emergency, to text me. Of course this only works well when I am working from home

2. Postpone the People

One interruption that is hard to ignore is people popping up at your elbow when you are working. If you have an office with a door, close it. Or as one of my co-workers does, schedule a conference room and hide out there for a few hours.

If you work in an open cube arrangement, post a sign that you are busy and will be free at a certain time. Since some people may not see that, follow that up by wearing headphones. Over the ear headphones are more visible that earbuds. And there are many options for noise-cancelling. (Pink noise work well for blocking out sounds).

For those truly clueless people who will ignore all of the above, quickly determine the nature of their business. If it is work-related, tell them you will look into it and get back to them; if it is social, ask if you can meet them for lunch (this is a great tip from one of the readers!)

3. Make a List

The hardest distraction of all to turn off is the chatter in your head. Persistent thoughts of things you need to accomplish can derail a task as surely as if you had tap dancers on your desk.

The best way to deal with this type of distraction is to make a list. As soon as the first distracting thought occurs, write it down, and get back to your task. Repeat as often as necessary. Deal with the list as you would the other distractions, when your focused time is over.

I personally use paper for this. That’s because if I have it on my computer, it is tempting for me to check my email, check the weather, check IMs, or any of a million different things available on the device. I can’t do much with paper other than write on it.

In Conclusion

Being interrupted doesn’t have to turn into a major detour. By turning things off, postponing people and making lists, you can either prevent interruptions or prevent them from destroying your focus.

The post 3 Strategies for Dealing With Interruptions appeared first on Laura Earnest.

For years I resisted the idea of time blocking. It seemed to me to be awfully close to putting tasks into a calendar, which I believe is on the same plane as stealing a kid’s candy. But after months of working off a bulleted task list and consistently (100% of the time) picking too many tasks to attempt during the day, I knew I had to do something different. Then a chance podcast introduced me to time blocking.

Today we will look at how to time block and some common mistakes to avoid.

Why Time Block

Blocking time gives you an overview of your time commitments like nothing else. By filling in the blocks where you have appointments, you can see exactly what time remains to you to do other things.

Time blocking gives you a representation of your schedule that can be done in no other way. No list of appointments, nor empty blocks can help you see what you are committed to in the same was a time blocking.

How To Time Block

Time blocking is very simple. You write down numbers representing all the hours on the day down one side of a sheet of paper, and then write in your appointments next to them. You can do this on paper, with Excel, Word or any number of other software or templates.

Here’s a sample from my life:

Next, add in tasks.

Common Mistakes in Time Blocking

There are a few mistakes that are commonly made in time blocking:

• Forgetting to include transition time. It takes time to move from one physical location to another. If you have to be to work at 9 am and your commute is 30 minutes, you should leave the time between 8:30 and 9 for the commute.
• Scheduling every minute. Every schedule will have some variance, regardless of our best intentions. Leave some space for tasks that take too long. Use empty spaces as you wish if you do happen to have a day where nothing runs long. (And then email me and tell me how you managed to estimate everything so well)
• Underestimating task time. It is easy for us to think we can get more done in a time span than we actually can do. Make sure you are being as accurate as possible in your task time estimates.
• Letting everything slide. Things generally run long. But if you are going to make time blocking work, you need to start the next task at the time you chose. Otherwise you will have a cascade of late tasks that will end up in you cutting into your sleep. Not a good idea.
• Don’t do time blocking in your calendar. Calendars are for fixed appointments, not projected plans.

In Conclusion

Time blocking is an easy way to see what is on your schedule and add in tasks. It allows you to plan for what will happen given your free time.

The post How To Time Block appeared first on Laura Earnest.

I am a procrastinator. I live in a world where there is always time to do it later. I put off the necessary, and then feel bad about it, so I don’t get to the fun stuff. My interest in productivity is largely due to noticing that if I don’t address procrastination, my life is frittered away. Getting past procrastination is the key for me to get the things I need to do done…so I can move on to the stuff I really want to do.

How Others Affect Our Procrastinating

It’s part of the human condition: we are all prone to putting things off when something else comes along. Our very survival depended on it back in the day. Think about it: if you were out gathering tubers to eat, and a bear came up, it was necessary to put off gathering and deal with the bear situation. Failure to do so would mean death. We are hard-wired to look at the situations around us and be distracted.

Our modern age brings unprecedented opportunities for distraction. We may not be dealing with bears or any other life-and-death situation, but we still have the same response. Ping ooh, let’s check email/Facebook/Twitter/instant message. “Hey, do you have a second?” person stops by and all of a sudden you have lost you focus.

And once you have lost your focus, you are prone to procrastinate.

Applying Newton’s Laws To Focus and Procrastination

Newton’s first law of motion states, “An object at rest will remain at rest unless acted on by an unbalanced force. An object in motion continues in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.”

Think about the distraction as being the unbalanced force. The distraction sends us careening off into another direction, and if we continue on that path, we will never get back to the original.

I’ll bet Newton didn’t think he was addressing productivity issues with his laws.

How To Spot It

So how do you know when you are facing one of those events that will pull you off task?

The first step to conquer procrastination is to be fully aware of what you are doing.  You have to know what path you are on in order to realize when you have been pulled off.

Once you know what you are doing, you need to be aware of what is your intention for doing.

So to spot the procrastination toxins, look at everything that pulls you away from your intent. The unbalanced forces in Newton’s world.

Let’s say that you sit down to do some writing. You know you are writing, and then next thing you know you are texting a friend. You know you were writing, you know you were texting. And even if you go back to writing, that text was a situational procrastination, pulling you away from your original intent.

Don’t Even Think About Playing The “2 Minute Rule” Card.

“But it took less than 2 minutes, and David Allen says that if a task takes less than 2 minutes, you should do it now.”

To that I say: [male bovine excrement].

The 2 minute rule is not there to get you off task. The 2 minute rule is there to be used within context not to pull you out of your current context.

If you know are sending a batch of texts, and the text will take less than 2 minutes, send it. If you are in the middle of doing something else and you remember you need to send a text, note it down somewhere and get back to your original task. Doing otherwise gets you into brain thrash.

How To Fix It

The best way to avoid being pulled off task by productivity toxins is to avoid the toxin. Don’t let something pull you off task. Here are some specific ways to do this:

Limit Visual Distractions

Limit as much as possible what is in your field of vision. If you are in a computer program, see if the program will go full screen. If you are at a desk, clear everything off but what you are working on. If you are doing yard work, focus on exactly what you are doing, and wear sunglasses if that helps to keep you from looking around.

As I was writing this article, I was distracted by the stuff on my desk. My phone was right next to me, and I stopped to pick it up. Then I moved a notebook to put on top of the phone, and I saw the pens that needed to be put away…and so on. Luckily, this was limited to about a minute, no more.

Limit Availability

If people are your toxins, find a way to limit your availability. Most of us don’t have the luxury of being able to close doors anymore. But a note on the back of the chair, or on the cube wall can let visitors know you are not to be distracted.

I find that wearing headphones and making sure they are visible from the cube entrance helps as well – even if I am not plugged into anything.

Turn Off Notifications

This is a big one for those of us addicted to the little pings and whistles. Turn off your notifications on your cell and computer, or put yourself in do not disturb mode (most smart phones and Windows 10+ have this feature built right in)

Yes, it’s a pain, but think about it this way: the makers of the program want to constantly draw you back to that program so they can expose you to ads and other money makers. By reacting to their ploy, you are making money for someone else.

Use A Timer

Timers work if you use them correctly. Set a small amount of time on the timer, and don’t stop working on the task until that timer goes off (make sure to start the timer, though!)

I still favor a freeware timer called Instant Boss, which I have written about before.  I actually have it running right now, as I had a terrible bout of procrastination as I was trying to finish this article up.

Use Sticky Notes

Sticky notes work when you are not at a computer. If I have a sticky note in my line of sight, I am constantly reminded of what I am on track to do. If I am making dinner, and I see that the fridge needs to be wiped down, but the sticky note is on my leg, I know I need to wait until I have a natural break in the cooking process in order to take care of the task. Until then, it gets noted on the notepad on the kitchen counter.

Over To You

What are your productivity toxins? And what do you do to minimize how they affect you? Share below.

The post Productivity Toxins: Getting Past Distraction appeared first on Laura Earnest.