Attention is currency in today's digital age. There are people, products, services, brands, things etc. vying for your attention ALL the time.
How then are we supposed to get what matters done?
Blocking time on your calendar for this is a good practice. However, that solves only part of the problem. You will continue to receive notifications, people will still call you, new mails will still hit your inbox and people will still ping you using Instant Messaging (IM) apps like Teams / Slack / Hangouts. I'm sure you get the drift.
These are some practices that have helped me -
1. turning on 'Focus mode' on my mobile
2. keeping my phone on 'Vibrate' (you can choose the 'Silent' option as well)
3. working 'Offline' on Outlook (this way you're in a parallel universe, away from the one in which your inbox is constantly receiving a barrage of mails. Isn't that awesome?). If you use a different mail client than Outlook, turn off notifications or close your mailbox altogether
4. changing status to DND on your Instant Messaging service
Additionally, I have permanently switched off all notifications for the majority of apps on my phone. This way I have better control of when I look at my phone, as opposed to picking it up when it beeps.
Here's a Tiny Habit that will help you get rid of smartphone related distractions: When I am working on stuff that matters (doing deep work), I will switch on Focus mode on my phone.
Thank you for spending your currency (read: attention) and going through my post.🙂
What is one practice you follow that helps you keep distractions at bay and focus?
If Focus mode is new to you, here are the steps you can follow to activate it:
