This is how I fixed getting distracted.

If you work online, then you easily relate to the urge, to check Instagram (or FB, or twitter), don’t you ? This is like a game, your mind is the bitch that makes the rules. And your time management apps and efforts go to waste. You want to manage your time, but the mind wants to play this game and win. Why ? Because it feels accomplishment having done so. There is a sense of reward and (short-lived) fulfilment.

When you have 152 new messages on WhatsApp, 678 emails, 91 Notifications or you get bored and head over to youtube and spend about a million hours browsing the videos “Recommend for you”, it’s your mind trying to avoid a difficult task by engaging itself in stuff that it considers pleasurable. And in this game, the mind has complete control over your will.

We don’t realize that our minds cannot even concentrate for 2 minutes when social notifications are at stake — source NBC news

This game is a strong habit loop that screws our time management efforts. And in order to get back on track, we need to learn the rules.

Mind tends to digress when things get tough (or boring)

It gets a reward(feeling of social acceptance) by looking at a notification, a like on it’s latest picture and other vanity metrics

It has a curiosity for happenings and news about topics we relate to. These can be our jobs, hobbies, interests or a memory

We are addicted to easily getting distracted. That well-timed email you read has no power until you chose to click on the link &

Most of the times, we are unaware about the functioning of this addiction. It does what it wishes to do and we do not realize that we have wasted our time.

It will be safe to say that link juice, that SEO experts talk about, is nothing but a representation of human attention that flows through the web.

Now that we know the rules, let’s see how to win over them. We need to realize that we are in a habit loop.

Charles Duhigg explains this concept in his book, The power of habit. On the surface, it means that we do something due to a trigger, in expectation of a reward. The more reward we get, the more likely we are to do the same thing again. For the online distraction game, the elements are :

Trigger — Bored or Tough Job in Hand
Task — Browse twitter, watch youtube video
Reward — Vanity, Knowledge gain

Problem — Loss of sense of time management

Charles Duhigg also states that habits loop can be altered only by substituting Tasks and Rewards for a given Trigger. That’s why people trying to break off smoking addiction, tend to eat potato chips, or something else when they feel nervous.

That’s what we need to do, replace the Task and the Reward. Here are a few steps you can take to beat the mind by its own rules :

Delay distractions

Don’t reply to that email right away. Don’t click that link. Instead, save it to an app like pocket or readability and read it later, when you are done with the important/ tough(or boring) task. Later when your energy is drained, it’s then that you should go back and read articles you like. And reply to emails.

Only emails that need an immediate reply, are the ones which concern the matter of life and death, all others can wait.

By doing this, you trick your mind into waiting for a reward. The Task is changes to add to queue (from reading it right now). The Reward changes to delayed gratification (from instant gratification).

Divide your days into compartments

Most habits are triggered by day & time. Like the habit to feel sleepy after lunch or on a Monday. If you can skip the programming of a 9 to 5 day, and break the work hours into compartments of 3 or 4 hours, then you’d be able to live 2 days in one. By doing this, you’ll be forced to learn a new habit of organizing yourself. The compartmentalised model will help you accomplish more and leave the distraction addiction.

It’s important to take a break when one compartment is over.

Make a to-do list on paper — and strike it often

An app cannot substitute the feeling of accomplishment that we get by striking a task off our paper based todo list. Period. You might as well get addicted to this feeling and start working harder. (Which might be a good or bad thing, just don’t overwork)

Exercise and Listen to music

The Gnostics believe that the brain function on three levels, intellectual, emotional and motor. You need to feed all of them in order to keep going. Your work will, if you are reading this, will be intellectual. Music helps with emotions and exercise with the motor brain. Walking in a park, being in the company of kids and loved ones also work out the emotional brain. So making time for your family too will boost your time management efforts.

Take Frequent Breaks

You can follow a rule that suits you : 20-minute work, 2-minute break or 45–15, 35–10, 30–7. Frequent breaks keep you from getting bored.

Sometimes, you are so focused that you forget when an hour passed by. If you are that kind of person, use the Awareness app, which rings a gong every n minutes.

Turn off your phone’s wifi and 3g

Keep a time to read your texts. If something is urgent, the other party will call you, but this is most important for keeping ourselves from addiction. The breaks between the compartments are a good time to read texts and notifications.

And last, be aware

Your mind wants to trick you. This habit took years to develop, there will be times when you forget about all you read here and go back to your old habits. It’s ok. But with time, you’ll get better at the game, and eventually beat the mind.