Are you easily distracted? If you are not, and you know why, you might want to stop all the other projects you are working on and concentrate on teaching people your secret. If you could teach that skill to others, you would have a definite money-maker.
Distraction is an ultimate success killer.
We distract ourselves to avoid taking the actions we know we need take. We distract ourselves even while we are in the process of doing the things we need to do.
As e-marketers, we are often faced with the need to do many different things in order to run successful campaigns and to make money. We find ourselves running in many different directions at once. We multitask, thinking that it is the only way to get everything done, despite the fact that we know multitasking makes us less efficient, not more.
This all leaves us overwhelmed, stressed out, and struggling with information overload.
What if you could keep yourself from being distracted, how much more efficient and successful would be? How much more would you get done? How much more money could you make?
If you do not try to improve your focus and block distractions from derailing you, any efforts you make to improve yourself or to complete major projects will be much harder to complete successfully, and may prove to be losing battles.
There are things you can do to reduce the impact of distraction in your life.
To win your battle against distraction, you must first realize that it is not your fault. The factors external to us which distract us are many, and always growing.
For example, information is everywhere, and increasingly accessible to us from more sources all the time. It has been estimated that each year, the amount of new information that is created roughly doubles the total amount of information which was created throughout all of history before it.
Technology is a chief driver of this trend, especially as the methods and media available to us to access information continue to grow and diverge. It was not long ago that we had no Internet, mobile phones, or personal computers. The number of television channels available to us continues to grow every year.
There are also internal factors which drive us to distraction. When you are reading, do you find that your mind easily wanders, forcing you to reread the same few sentences over and over before you actually remember the material?
One of the reasons we get distracted in this manner is because we are trying to focus our brains on one activity. But for most of us, the rate at which we can take in information by reading is much, much lower than the rate at which our brains can process information. The "extra capacity" your brain has available to it while you are reading starts to look for other things to do. This brain activity outside your primary focus is what leads to distraction.
There is an exercise which Albert Einstein developed and practiced to improve his focus. Before you get scared off into thinking that any mental exercise Einstein invented and practiced is going to be too difficult for you to use, let me assure you... this exercise is very simple. But when practiced regularly, if can be very powerful in eliminating distraction from your life.
The exercise is called Einstein's Distraction Index. All you need to practice it is something to read, a pen or pencil, a time-keeping device, and a few minutes per day. Here are the steps the exercise.
- On a piece of paper, write down the sentence, "I will not be distracted by that anymore."
- Set your time keeping device for 3 minutes.
- Begin reading for those 3 minutes.
- Every time you notice that you have been distracted, and you must go back and reread the same material again, place a mark on the page, and say to yourself "I will not be distracted by that anymore."
- After your 3 minutes are up, count how many marks are on the page (i.e.: how many times you were distracted in those 3 minutes).
- Repeat the exercise for another 3 minutes. Each time you repeat it, you should find that you become distracted fewer times. Keep repeating the exercise for 3 minutes each time, until you can do it without any distractions (and zero marks on the page). When you have done this, you have managed to practice 100% focus for 3 minutes!
- Now repeat the exercise again, extending the time frame by 2 minutes (to 5 minutes). If you end up with any distractions within those 5 minutes, do it again until you get to the point that you can go 5 minutes without distraction.
- Every time you reach zero distractions in your allotted amount of time, add two more minute to the exercise, and keep repeating it.
With enough practice, most people can build their focus up to 20+ minutes without distraction. Many people can go well beyond that. It may take you several weeks or months to reach that level of success, but you can get there.
This exercise helps in a number of other ways as well. Your practice will condition you to recognize distraction more readily whenever it occurs. It also trains you to move beyond distraction and get back on task very quickly.
You may find that you don't need to do this exercise every day in order to benefit from it. Some suggest you only need to do this once every 6 months to experience goods results. I find that claim to be a bit incredible.
How would the ability to keep control over your focus an eliminate distractions help you in your e-marketing efforts?
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