Becoming Less Distractable

Chapter 10

This post is a chapter of the book It Ain’t Gonna Lick Itself: Creating and Maintaining Living Spaces That Make Your Life Better (In Spite Of Everything) by Hanne Blank Boyd.

Click here for the full table of contents.

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These five principles are things I’ve found helpful in diminishing distraction when it’s time to get the (house… or any other) work done.

Principle 1: We stay on task better when we limit the potential distractions.

Some ways to avoid this:

• Put your phone on silent or on airplane mode… or turn it off altogether.

• Turn on the radio or a music/podcast stream, something you won’t have to adjust or fiddle with. Use headphones or external speakers so that you can walk away from whatever you’re using to play it.

• Clear a space to work in, if possible, so there are fewer extraneous objects you’ll need to deal with. It’s hard to clean, organize, and tidy if you constantly have to move other crap out of the way.

  

  Image: https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/weekend-projects-clean-pile-of-clutter-36749023

• Make a designated spot where you can park any objects you encounter that need to be dealt with but aren’t part of the task you’re working on right now. Putting them where they belong can be your last step when you’re finished with the thing you set out to do, or it can be a task for another time.