Feeling distracted and struggling to get stuff done?
Does focusing on one task feel impossible, or does your to-do list just keep growing?
You’re not alone. I used to be the same way, until I applied the five strategies from this article.
I’ll show you how to set up a distraction-free zone that makes knocking out your most important work easy.
And don’t worry, it’s super simple to do if you follow along!
Distraction-Free Environment Content
- Plan Ahead and Most Common Distractions
- How to Create a Distraction-free Zone
- Learn to Say No
- Keep a Full Calendar
- Tools for a Distraction-free Environment.
Let’s start to create your distraction-free environment!
1. Plan Ahead and Most Common Distractions
The most important thing is to plan ahead!
Because once you are distracted, it’s often too late! It’s tough to stop at that moment because you are already in a behavioral loop of running away from your task. You are already distracted!
Instead, plan not to get into a situation that distracts you.
Don’t allow yourself to be distracted. Get rid of all distractions before they occur!
Plan and create an environment that makes it easy for you to succeed.
For example: If you want to lose weight, you usually get rid of every piece of candy in your house first.
What’s your candy? What are your distractions?
List of common distractions:
- Your Phone.
- Social media Apps like TikTok, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat.
- Video Games.
- Internet Websites.
- TV.
- Streaming Platforms like Disney+, Netflix, and Amazon Prime.
- YouTube.
- Books.
- Cleaning your apartment.
- Somebody is calling you.
Eliminate your favorite distractions before they distract you, and get to work!
What’s The Longterm Effect?
Here is the thing: it’s not a problem to go to a distraction for ten minutes once in a while.
The problem is to go to distractions 10, 20, or 50 times a day.
The problem is that you go to Netflix, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, or any other website (or app), and boom, two hours are gone. That’s the problem.
Especially as most websites and apps are designed to keep you on their websites. At best, forever! Because they make their money with advertisements, and the longer you are on the site, the more adverts you see, and the more money they make.
That’s why you have to be proactive about these distractions, as once you are distracted, it’s hard to stop because everything is designed to keep you engaged, keep you on the app, keep you on the website, keep you scrolling, and keep you watching.
Plan ahead and create a distraction-free environment right now!
2. How To Create A Distraction-Free Environment
Here are some ways to create a distraction-free environment:
- Turn off your phone notifications
- Delete apps – Especially social media apps on your phone
- Turn off your phone and put it in a different room
- Block certain websites
- Cancel your cable or Netflix subscription
- Go to a library or coffee shop to work
- Create a separate room for work
- Put reminders everywhere
Support yourself in every way imaginable and plan ahead so that you don’t even get the chance to be distracted. Because once you give in to distractions, it’s hard to stop.
Here is a simple system you can use to break this pattern:
- Become aware when you want to run to distractions: How often do you run to distractions? Why? When? Which distractions are your favorites?
- Make tally marks on a piece of paper to count how many times you want to run away each day.
- Do you notice any patterns? What can you do to prevent these patterns?
- Take action! Remove these distractions from your life!
Example
One of your favorite distractions is checking Instagram on your phone.
Whenever you check Instagram on your phone, you make a tally mark on a piece of paper. Through that, you can see how often you check Instagram each day. That’s how you become aware of the habit and see the impact of this particular app on your life.
If you have the required iOS 12 or Android 9 versions, you can also use Screen Time for Apple or Digital Wellbeing for Android to see how often you use your apps.
You might realize that you check Instagram 50 times a day and spend 2 hours on the website. That’s a lot. That’s a lot of time you could spend with your family or use to work on your most important task.
So you might decide to uninstall Instagram from your phone (and use it only on your PC) or delete your account altogether because the negatives outweigh the benefits. Alternatively, you can share the password with your partner or assistant (if you trust them enough), and they will only allow you to log in to Instagram on weekends or once every two weeks.
Try out what works for you. There are many ways to shape your environment to make it easy to achieve your goals.
Try out different environmental changes and limit the time you spend mindlessly with your favorite distractions when you need to work!
3. Learn To Say “No!”
You can’t do it all!
If you want to be productive, you have to say “No!” to many things!
You have to choose the things you have time for and those you don’t have time for.
You have to choose the things you want to be good at and those you will bomb at.
Perhaps you even have to say “No” to almost everything you are currently doing because these things don’t get you to where you want to be!
Say No!
- Say no to keeping up with TV shows.
- Say no to celebrity gossip.
- Say no to being on social media.
- Say no to friends who are not good for you.
- Say no to events that you don’t want to attend.
- Say no to all activities that you know are not good for you.
List everything in your life that you are currently doing or would like to do. Everything!
Your hobbies, your commitments, your work, your aspirations. List it all.
And then look at the list. And ask yourself: What is essential? What is important?
What do you need to do to live your dream life? And what has to go?
What do you have to let go of? At least for now!
Later, you could do it. But not now. Now you don’t have time for it. Now it’s time to work on your most important goal and accomplish it.
And yes, maybe you would like to learn to paint, sail, speak Chinese, spend time with your family and friends, and excel at work. But is it all feasible? What is your main goal?
Do you have time to learn Chinese? Or is it better to postpone this goal until next year and concentrate on your most important task to accomplish your number one goal this year?
Get Your Most Important Task Done
If you have a lot on your plate, it’s easy to do many things poorly instead of one thing right.
That’s why you have to learn to say “No.” So you can say yes to your priorities. Or, even more important, so that you can say yes to your priority. Because till the 1900s, the word “priority” was used in the singular and not in the now-famous plural form (“priorities”).
Start to use the word “priority” in the singular again and ask yourself, “If I could do only one thing, what would it be? What is my priority?”
Then say yes to that priority! Say yes to that one thing!
With all your heart, say yes because you choose to do this one thing, and now you have time to do it!
4. Keep A Full Calendar
If you struggle with procrastination, block your calendar, eliminate white space, and get rid of unstructured time!
Put everything into your calendar!
When will you get up? Sleep? Eat? Work? Train? Meet your friends or family?
It should be full — no more white space. Everything should be accounted for. You want to know at any given time what you should be doing.
Free Time Is Dangerous
Free time and white space are dangerous because you will fill them with whatever you want.
Let’s say you come home at 6 pm and still have a presentation to finish. When you use a calendar and schedule everything, you will know that you will work on your presentation from 6 to 7, then eat something from 7 to 8, work another hour on your presentation from 8 to 9, and be in bed at 10 pm to get up tomorrow at 5:30 am.
If you didn’t schedule everything, you might come home, first watch three hours of television, and then finish your presentation from 10 pm till 12 pm, leaving you only 5 hours to sleep.
That’s why you want to have a full calendar! Not a half-full calendar, but a full calendar and even schedule your free time. Just because it’s free or flexible time doesn’t mean you can’t be prepared for it.
And if you had scheduled your time better beforehand, you wouldn’t need to work on your presentation after 6 pm because you would have probably finished it during your work time.
That’s the power of using your calendar to schedule everything.
Keep A Full Calendar
For the next week, keep a full calendar.
Write down what you will do each day and each hour.
- What will you do on Tuesday at 8 am?
- What will you do on Thursday at 10 pm?
- What will you do on Friday at 3 am?
- What will you do on Saturday at 2 pm?
Every hour should be accounted for. No more white space. Schedule everything!
5. Tools to Create a Distraction-free Environment
Here are tools that will support you in your effort to improve your productivity.
Not all are for free, but they are worth your time and money if they help you live your best life!
Let’s start with distraction-blocking tools that help create a distraction-free environment.
Block Distractions
Boost your productivity and reclaim your free time by blocking distracting websites, games, and applications.
Freedom is the app and website blocker for Mac, Windows, Android, and iOS, used by over 1,000,000 people to reclaim focus and productivity. Experience the freedom to do what matters most.
SelfControl is a free and open-source application for macOS that allows you to block access to distracting websites, email servers, or anything else on the Internet.
Put down your phone and focus on what’s important in your life. Whenever you want to focus, plant a tree. The tree will grow in the following time. The tree will be killed if you leave the app.
Rescue Time runs securely in the background on your computer and mobile devices. Tracks time spent on applications and websites, giving you an accurate picture of your day. Additionally, it provides you with detailed reports and data based on your activity.
Action Steps to Create a Distraction-free Environment:
- Write down a list of all your favorite distractions! Question: “What are your favorite ways to distract yourself from doing your most important work?”
- Create a plan on how to avoid these distractions. Question: “How can you make it harder for yourself to run to these distractions?”
- Create a distraction-free environment! Do this right now! Take action!
- Get an electronic or physical calendar and write down what you will do each hour of the week! Keep your calendar full. No white space is allowed. Try it for at least a week. I promise that your productivity will soar.
- What do you have to say “No!” to because it doesn’t get you where you want to be? Make a list of all your current commitments and decide what’s important. If you could do or achieve only one thing from that list, what would it be? What do you have to let go of to achieve your goals? Or what should you postpone till next year? Now, create this list and say “No!” to at least three things. The more you can say “No!” the better. And remember: “No!” is a complete sentence!
- What is one thing you can change in your environment to be more productive right now?
