Procrastination and distraction controlled me until I designed this system

Eduard Neagoe
Sep 9, 2018 · 6 min read

You can’t work deeply if you allow distractions to ruin your focus

“person using magnifying glass to see gold and white device gear” by Shane Aldendorff on Unsplash

In today’s world, we get bombarded with information and everything around us tries to catch and consume our attention. Is there any way we can still do profound and productive work?

Productivity is not a matter of willpower but a matter of managing your environment, a matter of designing a system that ensures you do your work

When To Do It

Like it or not, working early in the morning is one of the best things you can do. And by working early I don’t mean necessarily waking up at 5 am but starting your day by doing your most important work.

The advantages of doing this are plenty. First of all, you’re rested. You’re able to tackle your priorities and deal with the biggest obstacles. Second, there’s less distraction (that is if you do rise early) when everybody else is asleep.

Third, your brain is fresh and persistent. Willpower is a finite resource, according to a study conducted by Roy Baumeister in 1998. He placed each subject at a table on which there were two plates, one with delicious fresh-baked cookies and one with radishes. He asked some subjects to only eat the radishes and others to sample the cookies. Then he asked them to complete a difficult geometric puzzle in 30 minutes. It turns out the people who ate the radishes (and resisted the temptation) gave up after about 8 minutes. The cookie eaters went at it for 19 minutes on average because they didn’t deplete their willpower tank and were able to put more effort into it.

So, if willpower is scarce wouldn’t be wise to start working on the most important things first?

Where To Do It

It’s best to have a dedicated workplace. A place where you do nothing else but work. Why? Because that will condition your brain to go into work mode whenever you find yourself in that place. Your brain will learn that being there means focus time and boy it will focus! Humans are habitual in nature. Leverage that.

Watch Your State

If you want to be productive is better to be in a positive state of mind. It’s important to help your brain associate positive emotions with the work you’re doing.

Don’t work under stress. Stress is another name for fear. They both come from anticipation of bad things happening. And they are both generated by the amygdala, the almond-shaped part of the brain responsible with making you fight or fly. While in this state there is no clear thinking, no analysis, no thoughtful action. There is only speed and survival. And survival doesn’t go hand in hand with productivity. That is why you must learn to change your state.

How to change state? You could listen to some music and start dancing. Move your body like you would if you were in a good mood. Smile, stand tall. The body has as much influence on the mind as the mind has on the body. Tony Robbins says there are 3 things you can use to change your state.

  1. Focus — what you focus on will determine your state. You can try focusing on what you already have in your life and be grateful. Gratitude cannot coexist with negative emotions. Focusing on bad outcomes related to your work is unhelpful and stressing.
  2. Language — what are you telling yourself? “I am so disappointed”, “I am so angry”. There is a need for integrity in the human nature that makes us want to act accordingly to what we say about ourselves. Whenever you find yourself saying these kinds of things tweak them with weaker and funny modulators. For example “I am so angry” Becomes “I am a little bit huffy” or “I am a tad huffy”. That sounds so ridiculous it will break your negative state and make you laugh. Don’t take yourself too seriously, use this simple trick.
  3. Physiology — you can use your physical body to change your state of mind. The mind and the body are constantly influencing each other. This feedback loop makes us move and hold ourselves in congruence with our thoughts and emotional state. But we can go the other way around also, and embody emotion by changing the way we use the body. Let’s say you’re sad. The body language associated with that state is pretty closed — head down, shoulders forward, sad face, holding the arms close to the body, talking quietly. But if you act like you did that day when you were so happy because you did X, you stop slouching, you start smiling, you move your hands, talk louder and more confident and you will begin to feel that cheerfulness. If you start jumping out of joy that will work even better!

Beautiful state, beautiful work.

Strategies

Have A Dedicated Work Device

For the same reason you want to work in a dedicated place, you want to have a dedicated work device. Working on the same computer you use for leisure is counterproductive because you will get distracted and feel the urge to “check Instagram for a few minutes”. Those minutes are precious. Your attention is precious. You don’t want them going down the toilet.

Use A Not To Do List

In order to keep good productivity habits, you need bright lines. What are the things you absolutely must not do? Answer this question on a Not To Do list — a sheet of paper or maybe a post-it note. Keep somewhere you can see it. I added “social media” to mine because that’s a big time waster. I also added “tasks unrelated to my current task” because I don’t want to focus on anything other than my current task. Feel free to add to it whenever you identify distractions.

Leave Your Phone Out Of It

It’s not enough to have a Not To Do list, you must also execute on it. If you can’t stop yourself from reaching for your phone and checking social media, go one step further. You and that device must part ways for the time you’re working. Leave it out of your focus space. Remove from the environment any distraction you can’t overcome by will alone.

Use A Timer

Sometimes we need extra motivation to really get going. Urgency is a good motivator. Whenever we feel some time pressure we adapt and we do what needs to get done.

You can create a sense of urgency by using a timer. I use a Chrome extension called FocusMe — a pomodoro timer and website blocker. It allows you to set a “focus time”, a break time and a list of forbidden sites. I blocked YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and email because these are my main web-based time wasters.

Procrastinate Procrastination

Do you ever get ideas or you remember something while working and feel like you need to do something about it? Because it’s more important to deal with the task at hand first, I keep a Brain Dump list around. Whatever random ideas or concerns I have go straight on this list. This way I can clear my mind, direct it toward my work again and I am making sure I don’t forget about that thing I need to do later.

Take A Break

Being deeply involved in your work is fulfilling, but it doesn’t last for 8 hours straight. The brain needs some downtime. Relax your mind, otherwise your thought process becomes foggy. Taking breaks is a necessity so don’t feel guilty about it, but make sure you earn your breaks.
How long should your break be? 5 to 15 minutes is fine.

What to do on a break? Disconnect. Whatever that is for you. If you move around, do some squats or go outside for a walk a bit, that is great! Exercising will increase blood flow to your brain. You could also have a healthy snack, listen to some music, meditate, breath deeply, take a 10-minute power nap, stretch or talk to someone.

What not to do on a break? Anything that is on your Not To Do list. Your break is your recovery time. Nothing on that list helps with refreshing yourself, so don’t check your email and don’t watch cat videos. Don’t give yourself the chance to get distracted, otherwise 10 minutes will turn into 30.

That’s about it. Now go and try some of these, feel free to add to this system or tweak it out however it serves you better. Thanks for reading.

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