Learn to reduce distractions at work in 3 min (or less!)

Will a "ding" on your phone make you pause during work to check what happened?

Photo by William Iven on Unsplash

Distractions can eat up a productive day.

Even just a second spent deciding whether to respond, you'll need a few more minutes to refocus on your job.

Learning to handle distractions is vital to being productive in the mobile era.

According to psychologists, even just looking out the window can disrupt your thinking.

Being distracted for as little as two seconds means you're more likely to make errors while performing tasks.

The most common consequences of distraction at work are:

• More do-overs

• Reduced efficiency

• Increased stress and anxiety

• Inattentiveness at work

• Inability to think deeply

Electronic Devices

Email notifications, instant messages, and phone calls keep bombarding you while you're performing your job. You might be shocked by how much time you spend responding to messages each day!

Casual Conversations

Drop-ins by colleagues, gossip during coffee breaks, and conversations with a coworker sitting beside you are very familiar attention stealers.

Office Noise

Whether a co-worker is blasting music, or a small team is discussing their project spiritedly, office noise will hijack your attention and work against productivity.

Activate offline mode

Leave a certain amount of uninterrupted time to focus on a specific task. It's better to turn off notifications, let your emails and instant messages accumulate for a while, or even hold your temptation to peek at your phone.

Know your internet habits

Social media can be a magnet that attracts your attention and consume your productive time. Use apps to track your internet habits, then guide yourself to build an efficient and social-media-free working cycle.

Find a productive spot

If you need to get away from the "symphony" of an open office, seek a quieter place or put on a pair of headphones. Physically isolating yourself from chat, music, or others' obnoxious ringtone will help you concentrate on the job at hand.

Mute interruption with mindfulness

Distraction can overwhelm you, so mindfulness techniques like brief meditation, deep breathing and body scanning will help you become more focused, energetic, and less anxious during work, and will help lengthen your attention span.

Photo by Carl Heyerdahl on Unsplash

Do you want a more fruitful day?