Main sources of internal distraction

It's is the practice of controlling distractions, being present in the moment, finding flow, and maximizing focus, so you can create a life of choice, around things that are important to you.

It is the ability to recognize when your attention is being stolen (or has the potential to be stolen) and to instead keep it focused on the activities you choose. 

Attention management offers a deliberate approach that puts you back in control, by managing both external and internal factors.

Practicing attention management means fighting back against the distractions and creating opportunities throughout your day to support your priorities. 

Distractions can be either:

• Temptations: When we take a break from work to check social media
• Interruptions: When we get annoyed or repeated emails disrupting our workflow.

While we can deal with these external problems, what can be more challenging is our internal urge to be distracted.

Distractions are a way to mask what we are fearful of. Fear is a deception that comes from looking at something you’ve never done. It’s simply how your brain works — it believes anything could be death and everything you’ve already done has proven itself to be safe. Embracing fear makes it lose the grip on us.

Organizing your tasks according to their difficulty level has only positive effects on your work. You will not only keep track of what has been done and what remains to be done, but you will also make sure that both difficult and easy tasks are being performed.

Carefully scheduling your daily program enables you to reach a better focus. As you plan your day, you should take care of dividing your tasks according to the available time. This way you will know from the beginning of the day what and when needs to be done, which will reduce considerably the time to make decisions, which is one of the main distractions when thinking to start a new task. Furthermore, including breaks in your schedule is almost essential, as these allow you to  recharge your batteries and, therefore, work more efficiently afterwards.

We’re not actually multitasking; rather, we are switching rapidly between different activities.

Better concentration makes life easier and less stressful and we will be more productive. Practice concentration by finding things to do that specifically engage you for a period of time to the exclusion of everything else.

... for learning to concentrate better:

Whenever you feel like quitting – just do five more – five more minutes, five more exercises, five more pages – which will extend your focus. 

The rule pushes you just beyond the point of frustration and helps build mental concentration.

To get better at concentrating, start small.

• Choose only one task or point of focus. Clear all other things away or shut them down.
• Look at your environment. Do you work better in silence or with ambient noise? Is your chair comfortable enough?
• You can also train yourself to be more mindful by focusing on your breath or any other sensation for three minutes.

If you're distracted because of internal turmoil, be kind to yourself. Remind yourself that's what's going on. Talk about it to someone or just to yourself.

If you do get distracted, notice it and gently bring your attention back.

1. Observe the need to procrastinate, recognizing and being aware of your desire. This is called meta-recognition and is what all the Gurus keep talking about when they speak about awareness.
2. Label and accept your urge to waste your time, but without any negative judgement.
3. Validate your urge to procrastinate, increasing your self-esteem.
4. Approach procrastination as a friend, not as a threat.

The biggest obstacle, the main villain hampering our productivity is always in your hands, and rarely in your pockets. _It’s your smartphone. It needs to be powered off for some time. Your laptop, clamouring for attention, is not helping either. Remove all distractions and notifications so that you can get in the ‘flow’ mode.

Creating friction between us and the open black hole of the online distractions helps us focus on work.

It’s about paying attention to the present moment with awareness and without emotional reactivity.

It can be broken down into two major categories:

• Focused attention exercises cultivate your brain’s ability to focus on one single object, like one’s breath or walking.
• Open monitoring helps you learn to pay attention to what’s happening around you without becoming attached to it.  

• you tend to work on the right things. Effective single-tasking requires planning. Starting your day without a plan is just asking for distraction and inefficiency.
• you accomplish more in less time with less stress: Intentionally focusing on one task at a time has been proven the most efficient way to move through your to-do list.

1. Cutting out distractions.
2. Make a single-tasking plan you’ll actually stick to.
3. Dealing with unavoidable distractions.
4. Getting back on track when you’ve fallen off the single-tasking band wagon.

Reminders give us mental space for more important work. They make sense because we can't remember everything.

They keep our most important priorities top of mind. And studies show how reminders can help us save more money, keep up with medical treatments, and be more charitable.

• We’re bombarded by reminders and notifications every day and this can mess up our focus.
• Reminders cause context switching and distraction. They take our focus away from what we're doing.
• Good reminders lose their influence quickly. The sheer number of them means we’re more likely to miss the ones we do want to pay attention to.

Small talk might not be that meaningful, but it does have a few benefits: it can make you happier and it can boost the brain’s executive functions responsible for everything from attention and focus to time management to organization.