The Demons of Distraction

I'm meeting a friend at 6.30pm to discuss about some of our on-going projects. I have about 45 minutes to write this blog post before the meeting. It's a public holiday today--one of the 3 long weekends we have this month. So it doesn't feel like my usual Monday at all.

I worked from home today, starting very early in the morning around 5 am. I love these early morning work sessions: the mind is so fresh when you wake up in the morning and during these golden hours, there are no distractions from anyone at all.

The good thing about clocking in some work in the wee hours of the morning is that you are guaranteed of a productive day, even before your day actually begins. It gives you a great sense of accomplishment for the rest of the day. Whatever you manage to do after that becomes almost like a bonus.

The most difficult challenge about starting the day early is of course having to go to bed early. I've been hitting sack before 12 lately but to really ensure that you wake up early and fresh, you'll have to go to bed almost like 10pm! That's kind of challenge in our lives today because a lot of our social life--dinners, outings with friends or family--extend until late at night. One such social event could disrupt your routine for days. Nothing is worse than feeling lethargic the whole day due to lack of sleep.

I've learned how to harness the tides of energy and concentration that I experience throughout the day as they ebb and flow. Do your best work when it is rising and allocate some time to relax when your energy is beginning to wane. Early morning after rising is when your powers of concentration is the highest. These are golden hours that should not be wasted doing web-surfing or other time-wasting activities.

Finding the right rhythm and balance is the key to productivity. A work session should not last more than 3 hours. Take a break in between to recharge yourself. I find that Baroque music works best for me. Coffee breaks and meals are also great activities to relax the mind. These breaks are also the best time to catch up on the messages that pile up on your phone while you were concentrating hard on your work.

That's the ideal scenario. In reality it seldom works out that way. We get interrupted and distracted many times during the course of our work session. Sometimes we subconsciously welcome then because--admit it--work can be pretty tedious and difficult. So you jump on the first Whatsapp message that drops into your phone.

The way I overcome distractions from the phone is not by turning it off but by lowering the notification sound and configuring the apps in such a way that nothing pops up on the screen. It's best to treat Whatsapp messages like email. Most of the time, they are not that important anyway.

So one needs to be extremely wary of distractions to be productive. Another trick that I use often is to reserve some 'easy work' for the next work session, so that you can get started easily. Without that convenient stepping stone to work, sometimes you won't get started at all because you'll probably have to search through lots of files to figure out what to do. And in the process, something will happen that distracts you away from work.

Remember, the demons of distraction are extremely devious. Be very very careful of their machinations. Godspeed.