The Distraction List

Using the power of the To Do list to prevent distractions.

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

It’s a typical workday morning and you’re having trouble getting the ball rolling for today’s tasks. You take a short mental break to check your phone. Next, you find yourself on Wordle. Then you transition over to the news. You see an ad for a sweater you’ve been eyeing for a while and start online shopping.

You’re too far gone. You can’t stay focused on your work. Why can’t you stop reaching for your phone?

There’s actually a simple explanation: the more you do something, the more your brain wants to do it. On the flipside, the less you do it, the less you’ll want to do it. More scientifically: when you do an activity repeatedly, your brain develops the neural pathways required to perform that activity. Once these neural pathways are developed, you’ll want to keep utilizing them.

So the answer to staying focused seems simple enough: just stop reaching for your phone! In theory, it makes sense, but in practice, it becomes a lot harder. So how does one start?

The first thing you can do is remove all triggers that are within arm’s reach out of your desk. Put your phone in a different room, don’t keep a stash of snacks near your desk, and put blockers on certain sites you impulsively click on to avoid your…