Three Major Obstacles to Focus, and Their Solutions

The following is adapted from Our American Dream by Andrew Samuel.

Never have we lived in a time with more potential distractions. It seems there’s no end to the competition for our scarce attention. When I was young, I learned the critical value of focus through necessity; there weren’t any distractions while living with fifteen other people in a single room with a cow dung floor. We didn’t have the distractions of TV, sports, or hobbies — we lived simple lives from day to day and worked to put food on the table. Our singular focus was on where our next meal would come from, and nothing else mattered.

Focus is arguably one of life’s most important skills, but with the constant demands on our time and the fast pace of our lives today, it can be challenging to maintain — we are easily distracted and find numerous ways to veer off track.

As a family man and CEO, I’m inundated with various tasks every day, but I manage to get them done. My sons-in-law have asked me how I’m able to accomplish so much in one day, and I say, “It’s all about being intentional. You have to train yourself to see that if you don’t cross every item off your to-do list, your day is unfinished. You have to create a plan, follow through with it, and be disciplined enough to stay the course. You can’t let peripheral things distract you from your path. Don’t procrastinate, and set time limits for excess or unnecessary activity.”

Distractions can easily interfere with our focus, but we must be determined to push past them. In those short article, I’ll address these obstacles and introduce you to three habits I have put into practice in an effort to follow my own advice: the Sunday Night List, Online Time Limits, and Phone Control.

Obstacle One: Procrastination

Our human nature wants to leave undesirable tasks for last (or leave them behind altogether), but oftentimes, doing those tasks first will yield the highest benefits and impact. For example, I don’t particularly like making sales calls, and I used to put them off, but now I make it a priority to do them first thing each day. I’d much rather call my friend to talk about the basketball game we’re attending, but I don’t allow myself to do so until I’ve called five prospects. That way, I get those calls off my mind, get paid, and I’m free to focus on the upcoming basketball game.

The same goes for when I need to have a disciplinary discussion with an employee regarding poor performance. These meetings are never pleasant and usually involve cutting their salary to some extent — can you blame me for wanting to put these off? However, by having these meetings right away, I’m able to help and coach the employee sooner rather than later, and I’m free to focus on more pleasant tasks without the dreaded meeting looming over me.

Solution: The Sunday Night List

Besides sheer willpower, is there a practical way to conquer procrastination? I’ve found that there is. Every Sunday night, I take time to look at what the upcoming week has in store, determine my top-priority tasks, and make a list. First, I write down of all of the tasks I don’t want to do, but have to, and devise a plan to get them done early in the week. This sets me up for success and allows me to enjoy the latter part of my week as well as the weekend.

Obstacle Two: The Internet

I’m a big sports fan, and I enjoy going online to check scores and look at highlights. However, if I let myself get carried away, three hours can disappear in a heartbeat, and I know I’m not the only one facing this issue. I often see younger people in their twenties and thirties in airports, restaurants, and stores engrossed in the online world of sports, social media, or YouTube videos. Before you know it, they’ve spent half of their waking hours being unproductive, and they’ve done nothing to improve the direction of their life or their vocation.

Unfortunately, what was originally designed to be innovative and convenient is diluting our ability to focus. Many young professionals spend too much time on social media, and it’s killing their motivation. It also hinders them from having meaningful relationships because they can’t relate to others; it seems they only know how to communicate online and lack the ability to speak to people face-to-face.

And young professionals aren’t the only ones being affected — children are being robbed of their parents’ time and attention because they too are caught up in social media. For this reason, those parents aren’t able to focus on nurturing their kids, and some even allow their children to play video games for hours on end. The result has been the development of suboptimal attention spans, with children knowing nothing about the art of writing or the joy of reading. It’s quite sad.

Solution: Online Time Limits

I realize that I’ve painted a negative picture of the online world, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Spending time on social media and other sites can be positive and serve to enhance your life when you are willing to make changes and do it right. Start by asking yourself if you are spending too much time online. If you find that you are, I challenge you to be more disciplined with the time that you spend “connecting” with others.

A good starting point for change is to assess your connection methods. Do you truly need to be on multiple platforms and sites, chatting with people in different ways, or can you choose one platform that is best suited for you and stick with it? Even then, it’s important to set limits on the time you spend scrolling through that site. I suggest a thirty-minute limit at a designated time of day so it doesn’t eat into your productivity. And there’s an added bonus to doing this: setting limits will make the time you do spend online much more purposeful.

Obstacle Three: Cell Phones

Cell phones are convenient, but they can also be a terrible impediment to our focus. The minute we receive a call, email, or text, we drop everything to answer or send a response. This pattern quickly consumes the focus that we have on our tasks, so we must be careful and intentional about the time we spend on our phones — we can’t allow it to dictate our schedules or the flow of our days.

Solution: Phone Control

To minimize the chances of being distracted by my phone, I schedule a few times during the day to check and respond to messages. I’ve found this to be an effective way to avoid being tied to the unpredictability of incoming messages and calls — and when I do respond, I’m able to fully focus on each message.

There’s another habit I practice to help me strike a balance with my phone and get a good night’s sleep at the same time: I turn off my phone at night. I don’t leave it on silent — I actually shut it down. Leaving the phone on silent still keeps you tuned in to the vibration, and you may not feel settled because you have one eye closed and the other one on the phone. Now, you might be thinking, “Turn my phone off? What if someone calls or texts? What if there’s an emergency?” While it’s true that someone may need to reach you in the middle of the night, the likelihood is very low; people don’t need to have access to you 24/7. And if you have a home phone, then that problem is solved.

I also look for opportunities to intentionally be without my phone. For example, when I go for walks, I leave my phone at home. I believe that having the phone on me during that time is a burden, and it takes away from the unwinding and cleansing experience of the walk. I’d much rather enjoy nature and focus on genuine interaction with my neighbors.

Recovering Focus

There’s always a reason to lose focus and be distracted by something that holds immediate interest. Tempting as this is, however, it’s not a good way to attain long-term success or lead a deeply fulfilling life. Only when we dedicate ourselves to a purpose larger than ourselves can we learn to truly savor life. Focus is an essential part of that process.

I encourage you to practice the three habits described in this article, until they become so much part of your routine that you don’t need to think about them. I trust that you’ll find they make a huge positive difference to your focus.

For more advice on focus, you can find Our American Dream on Amazon.

Andrew Samuel, who serves as the Chairman, CEO, and Director of LINKBANKCORP, Inc. and LINKBANK, has a long track record of industry success. He’s helped take banks from insignificance to being listed on the Nasdaq Global Market, and has been involved in the mergers and acquisitions of more than ten companies with an aggregate deal value surpassing $1.5 billion. Andrew has shaped workplaces that are listed as the best to work at in their region, and created cultures centered around servant leadership. Andrew lives in the central Pennsylvania area with his wife of thirty-six years. They’re blessed with five daughters, four son-in-laws, and twelve grandchildren.