Direction or Distraction

What is your chosen path? Are you creating progress toward your goals each day or are you living in a constant state of distraction?

Studies show that each time that you are distracted, as in checking your phone or email, it takes you 23 minutes to re-orient yourself back to the task at hand and re-focus according to University of California at Irvine.  So, let’s assume that you check your phone every hour. You are only focusing for 37 minutes of every hour. Extrapolating that out, this is what time is “lost”.

1 Day (10 hours)= 230 minutes or 3.8 hours

1 Week (5 days)= 19 hours

1 Month (20 days)=76 hours/ 7.6 10 hour days

1 Year (240 days)= 912 hours/91.2 10 hour days

I contend that a long vacation would be much more desirable than the time “wasted” looking at our phone and work towards getting re-focused. Since becoming aware of the various challenges that life provides us is the path to growth, what are some tools that you could use to re-focus yourself and utilize your time better so that you can live life to it’s fullest?

Here are some thoughts on how to reclaim your life

 -Could you set an alarm to check your phone/email once every 2-4 hours and once checked, respond as needed immediately?

-Would it be possible to set a response to texts/emails and calls that set’s boundaries with your clients, friends, family that let’s them know that your response will be delayed along with a “thank you”?

-Are you able to consider valuing your family/friends by putting on a do not disturb on your phone after leaving work so you can be “present” with them? There may be some things in our lives that we have no control over, but this is not one of them. It is a choice.

 -Would you be willing to make the choice to evaluate the impact that distraction is having on your life? Name some ways you/others are impacted negatively.

 

Calculate and record how many hours of distraction take place in your day?_________

 Whose life might improve if you decreased your level of distraction?______

 What could improve in your life if you re-focused________