How We Deal With Distractions At Work
As long as you can find your key to refocus, you’re good to go.
Distraction is common to all of us, age does not affect this matter. Whether I am a 4 year old in Kindergarten, a 22 year old at university, a 35 year old at work, or the CEO of my own company, getting distracted is bound to happen.
Losing concentration is one thing, and finding the right way to refocus is another. I have my own way to do that, and so do all of my colleagues at the office.
To find out about all that, everyone on the Aimee team was asked one question.
What distracts you from focusing or doing your work, and how do you manage to refocus yourself again?
Some answers were very much alike, while others were completely different.
Stephanie (The Marketing Manager): “What distracts me most is interruptions. This comes with the job of leading a team. Unplanned interruptions make it more difficult to follow my personal day’s plan.
The way I deal with it is, by planning my biggest priorities a day ahead. That way I know what to tackle first. Something that also helps is, to be realistic with the number of important items per day. I minimize them to the top three most impactful things to do. This helps me stay focused on the daily goal throughout a busy day. When I absolutely need to disconnect and work, I either put earphones and music on, or wait till the end of the day when the office is less busy. In extreme cases, I leave the office and work remotely.”
Sara (The Marketing Officer): “What distracts me from focusing is, those tiny tasks that pop up throughout the day, which are bound to happen no matter what. We work in an office where the space is open for any suggestions and new ideas, so it’s only normal that new tasks keep occurring. To get back into focus, I write whatever it is that I need to finish on a piece of paper and get them done. Every time I am done with one, I cross it out.”
John (The Content Creator): “What I find most distracting is quietness and interruptions. For me, nothing is worse than dead silence and/or having to stop and do something else when I’m on a roll.
It’s all part of the job though, so to get back into the “zone”, I found a few things that helped. 1: I write all my daily tasks on my desktop sticky notes. 2: My earphones are my creative lifeline. 3: If it gets too quiet or if I’m under a wave of writers-block, I leave the office and work remotely.”
Rony (The Digital Marketing Specialist): “To me, Whatsapp is a distraction. I used to put the phone aside at work and never look at it, but it seems that all the people I know like to text instead of have normal calls. So if my mobile buzzes several times, I lose my focus. Now, I have chosen to only answer my phone when it is my parents or the bank.
When I want to be in full focus, I put my earphones and listen to Science debates or Music, that way I can isolate myself. Until people start asking questions that are not work-related. Questions concerning work never annoy me, on the contrary.
I haven’t experienced any of that with the Aimee team, but in some previous companies I used to take my laptop and go to the bathroom to finish my tasks.”
Tatyana (The Creative Content Writer): “Well, to me distractions would be, either getting interrupted while I am fully focused, or hunger. The latter is easy, I just go ahead and grab a small snack. But concerning the interruptions, I’d have to stop and restart. It doesn’t take me much time though, a two minute walk would do the trick, or some music as I focus back.”
Nicholas (The Developing Team Manager): “I lose focus when I get the urge to surf the Internet, and by that I do not mean Social Media Apps. I read a lot of Tech News and I get notifications from Flipboard all the time. So, I simply read them and then easily refocus back.”
John (The iOS Developer): “The only thing that might drift me away from what I am concentrating on is, if I am asked to do a completely different task while I do a current one. But it doesn’t bother me much, I just go for a short walk and I am back on track.”
Firas (The Web Developer) & Marwan (The Android Developer): “It is very hard to distract a developer, we’re either fully focused or not. So whenever we allow ourselves to get interrupted it means our concentration is gone for a while. It’s a bit hard for us to get distracted according to the tasks we deal with.”
Tony (The CEO): “Me? Distracted? Never!”
There you have it, distraction is universal, and there is nothing wrong with it. One thing we should be aware of and have a solution for is, finding our way back to focus after we have drifted away from it for a little bit.
