Why do I do this to myself? For the second time this week I broke my own rules, conditions, and barriers and gave into the magnetic pull of morning distractions…
Here are just a few of my morning temptations:
- My phone (texts and calls)
- Twitter and Linkedin (Not sure why I just hit refresh over and over on these pages sometimes… This is why I deleted Facebook and Instagram because they were even worse for me!)
- Email and Slack
- Feedly feeder app
- Craigslist (Not sure why I love checking the gigs and for sale pages so much…)
- Next Door neighborhood site
- Voxer
The day goes much better if I can start the day without being pulled into one of these land mines.
No matter how much “work” I accomplish in a day if I didn’t create something new I feel like it was a lost day.
What have I put in place to protect me from falling into this trap?
- I keep my phone on do not disturb, not in the bedroom and in the complete opposite corner of my home.
- My laptop is closed and also in the furthest corner.
- I don’t have Twitter or Linkedin on my phone and my email is setup to work on WiFi only.
- I keep WiFi off in the house. So in case I do initially fail (which I often do) and grab my phone there is some extra effort required to get distracted.
Yes, I have literally booby trapped my morning to keep me on target!
These distractions pull me away from creating something new. I know they do. And yet their pull is magnetic. Sometimes it feels stronger than gravity. Even with all I have put in place to prevent it, I oftentimes still fail.
While writing this I made a mistake and didn’t put my computer on airplane mode. I just got an extremely tantalizing email… I must not check it…
.
.
.
.
.
Okay, I’m back! I had to check that email and reply. Then I had to check my calendar. And then I had to set a reminder to follow up on it.
What was I writing about?
Oh yes, not getting distracted away from creation. Oops!
I guess I am not an expert and I’m looking for your tips! Please let me know what has worked for you.