Top Tips for Minimizing Distractions to Get More Done

Increasing your productivity doesn’t take a magic wand or require you to get an advanced degree in statistics. If you are struggling with a lack of productivity, you need to take a closer look at your daily habits. Being unproductive is nobody’s fault but your own. Here are some of the top tips that you can incorporate into your daily life to minimize distractions and get more done. 

 

Tip #1 – Learn to Anticipate Yourself

 

When it comes to productivity, you’re your own worst enemy. According to a study by the University of California Irvine, office workers are only able to focus on a task for an average of three minutes and five seconds before they become distracted. Surprisingly, 44 percent of those distractions are internal. The good news is that internal disturbances are the only kind that you can control. Learn to know your patterns and plan for these distractions.

 

Tip #2 – Send Out Busy Signals

 

More than half of your distractions are external distractions that come in the form of email, people, phone calls, and chatter from other offices. If you want to stop these external distractions before they start you have to give out the right signals. If you utilize instant messenger, set yourself too busy and wear headphones, even if you aren't listening to music. Providing subtle queues may seem passive aggressive, but they will also save you from annoying distractions.

 

Tip #3 – Make Technology Work for You

 

At times, technology may seem like an enemy, but technology can be your anti-distraction buddy. Turn off your email alerts, create an auto-response to text messages, and set your phone to go to voicemail. Block out chunks of time on your calendar as "busy." Unless you are dealing with life and death situations at work, your coworkers will be able to manage without you for a few hours.

 

Tip #4 – Learn to Say No

 

If you are already overloaded with work and you feel like you never get anything accomplished, then you need to learn to say no to new requests and projects. You can nicely let people know that you would love to help, but your plate is currently full. 

 

If you are starting to have more and more unproductive days, it’s time for you to determine your distractions and put a stop to them. By being proactive, silencing technology, and learning to say no, you will find that you will start to become more productive. 

Why Being a Perfectionist Will Kill Your Productivity

If you tend to set high bars for yourself and always try to put your best foot forward to achieve your goals, your perfectionism could be killing your productivity. While striving for perfection can help you achieve great results, it can also prevent you from being your best and can foster a lack of productivity. Here are several ways the being a perfectionist will quickly kill your productivity.

 

Perfectionism Makes You Less Efficient

 

When you strive for perfection in the tasks that you do, even when you've completed the task, you will linger on to find new ways that you can improve. This lingering process might start off as a quick ten-minute process but can quickly escalate until you find yourself spending an hour or more looking for things to improve. This causes you to spend way too much time on a task that required and puts you behind schedule.

 

You Become Less Effective

 

As a perfectionist, you probably do little things because they seem like a good addition. However, you fail to consciously think whether those additions are necessary. Sometimes, those additions not only fail to add value but might even ruin things.

 

You Tend to Procrastinate

 

When you have perfectionist tendencies, you often wait for the perfect moment, which tends to overcomplicate a project. What is a simple task, might get blown out of proportion, to the extent that it then becomes intimidating subconsciously. This causes you to procrastinate on working on it because you are waiting for the ever "perfect" moment before you begin. Unfortunately, this perfect moment never happens until it's too late.

 

You Miss the Bigger Picture

 

Since you are too hung up on the little details, you tend to forget about the bigger picture and the end goal. It isn't uncommon to see better jobs in pruning the trees than the growth of the forest.

 

You Fuss Over Unfounded Problems

 

Most perfectionists tend to anticipate problems before then crop up and develop solutions to address the issues. It ends up becoming an obsession to pre-empt potential problems. Unfortunately, most of the problems that you envision never surface or they don’t really matter as much as you thought they would. 

 

While striving to aim for higher standards isn’t a bad thing, when the quest for perfection turns into an obsession, it will quickly kill your productivity. The answer isn’t to stop striving for perfection, but rather to be conscious of your perfectionist tendencies and manage them accordingly. 

3 Key Things to Understand About the Law of Attraction

The law of attraction was first popularized in the 2006 movie “The Secret” by Esther and Jerry Hicks. It has had a huge impact on the mass consciousness, but there is still a large amount of confusion on its general application.

 

#1 - It’s About Vibration, Not Thoughts

 

The main idea behind the law of attraction is that people manifest their reality not through their thoughts but through their vibration. The universe will respond to the energy generated by a particular thought as opposed to the thought itself. So you need to first get yourself into a good mood somehow before you will be able to manifest the energy of what you really want. After a while, the vibration becomes the reward, and the material items just appear after the fact. 

 

#2 - Letting Go of Resistance

 

The level of internal resistance people have to the things that they want is not understood. People can have certain problems or issues, and then they create an identity of themselves out of these problems. When something comes along that is at odds with our idea of ourselves as inferior in some way, we resist. This can be observed when people win the lottery and wind up homeless 10 years later. We have to be a vibrational match to a new reality and not be attached to our former convictions. Otherwise, nothing will change. Many people are resistant to the idea of the law of attraction and will refuse to believe existence could be so simple. They will then continue to struggle believing that it is just how life is. 

 

#3 - Don’t Get Precise

 

It is important to understand the vibrational equivalent of what you want. You can have an image or a feeling about what you want that makes you feel good. But as you get more precise about how it is supposed to manifest, the universe has fewer ways that it can give it to you. There are millions of ways to get rich. But you can only possibly contemplate one or two methods which would involve years of work and labor. Consider that every successful person has vastly changed their business models. And they do so regularly. They might have a general idea about where they want to go, but they definitely innovate and change as these opportunities present themselves. So get happy and positive about the future, but don’t get too precise about how it will materialize. 

3 Ways to Gain a Comprehensive Understanding of Mind

The mind is something of a vague concept that can be hard to comprehend. Even scientists disagree on the nature of the mind and matter. But you don’t need to understand everything. You just need to know enough to further yourself and understand how you actually operate, so you can get to where you need to be. 

 

#1 - Read and Research

 

The best way to gain an understanding of the mind and of your personal inner psychology is to read and research. There are many amazing books that have been written on the art of psychology and persuasion. But it is also good to read a wide variety of literature, and you might consider reading some Buddhist or Zen material which describes the more esoteric nature of the mind. Additionally, there are some very interesting discoveries that have been made by scientific research about how the mind operates. By reading about the experience of others you can contrast them with your own thoughts and ideas. There are cultures with distinctly unique philosophies and ideas that are opposite to those in the West. Contrast is an excellent way to increase understanding and open-mindedness. 

 

#2 - Meditation

 

Meditation is the art of observing your own thoughts. It is the quickest and most widely recognized way to understand your own mind. Even if you are incredibly intelligent and successful, an ability to stand outside yourself is necessary in order for progress. Otherwise, the same habits and tendencies will simply keep repeating themselves. Outside of meditation, it is a good idea to become very strict about what you pay attention to. Do not consume words and images that are not pleasant to your mind. You will have to deal with them in meditation later. 

 

#3 - Learn From Your Emotions

 

Much has been said about the power of the mind in terms of generating our reality. The missing link in what could be arguably described as a left-brained society is the focus on feelings. Our emotions are a response to whether we are happy or sad with our current environment, in a sophisticated real-time feedback system. Emotions have been brushed aside as illogical tendencies, which is a drastic mistake. If you feel bad, it is time to change your thoughts and your situation quickly. Over time, you will gain experience with regard to how intricate the emotional system really is and how it can serve to guide your thoughts. 

 

4 Inspirational Business Leaders With Incredible Mental Strength

In order to succeed in the realm of business, mental strength is essential. All of the most well-known leaders have amazing internal resources which enables them to get handle anything life throws at them. Here are 4 of the more admirable business leaders of the 21st century. 

 

#1 - Oprah Winfrey

 

If there was ever somebody who could be said to have overcome adversity, it is Oprah Winfrey. She was born into poverty and molested as a child, giving birth to a premature child at 14 who died in infancy. Nevertheless, she became the most iconic African America women of the 21st century and still remains very relevant as a symbol of female empowerment. She becomes the first African American billionaire and did much to change popular culture and sexuality taboos. 

 

#2 - Bill Gates

 

Bill Gates is the second richest person in the world with a net worth of over $60 Billion. Gates is the creator of Microsoft and while he still sits on the board, his efforts are mainly focused towards the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates has pledged all of his fortunes away to charity instead of to his wife and children. Gates is more interested in humanitarian issues such as climate change and diseases than just technology. Early in his career, he was asked why he didn’t just give sell Microsoft and give the money to charity if he cared so much. He answered that he could make more money with Microsoft and use it to help the disadvantaged. And that is exactly what has happened. 

#3 - Donald Trump

 

While Donald Trump is something of a polarizing figure, there can be little argument that he possesses formidable mental strength. In 1999, he said that Oprah Winfrey would be his running mate for a presidential campaign. He has endured a barrage of criticism for his border wall, personal misconduct, and Russian collusion allegations. But the president has an immensely strong psychology that has endured attacks from all sides. He is also a finance magnate with a global presence in the hotel and casino industry. 

#4 - Mark Zuckerberg

 

Zuckerberg is the current CEO of Facebook and has performed very well to remain a position of power in his company, despite his youth. Under Zuckerberg, Facebook has won a large number of court battles. He also undertook a challenge to kill his own meat for a year to understand sustainable farming, which he completed. 

 

5 Proven Strategies to Increase Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is a little difficult to pin down in many ways, especially with the modern-day emphasis on mental strength. While the two are inter-related, it can help to work on emotional intelligence as its own practice. There are 5 proven ways to increase emotional intelligence. 

 

#1 - Social Situations

 

Learning to handle yourself in social settings is the primary means through which emotional intelligence can be increased. Some people find social situations quite painful, but they are often the best way to excel. If you really want to fast track emotional intelligence, consider public speaking or debating. These are not merely mental practices but they will require emotional skills to execute successfully. 

 

#2 - Express Yourself

 

The majority of people do not know how to express themselves. In many ways, society teaches us to keep our emotions repressed, with a politically correct movement that prevents people from stating the truth. To offset this, learn to express yourself as much as possible. If not in a public setting, you can write or paint in ways that express how you truly feel. Expression is essential to wellbeing and its opposite, repression, will result in an unhappy lifestyle. 

 

#3 - Undertake Charitable Acts

 

While many people are focused on acquiring material possessions, studies have shown that giving away things and taking on volunteer work actually leads to increased meaning and happiness in life. Seeing how other people live in substandard conditions is an excellent way to increase emotional intelligence. It will increase your empathy and compassion. 

 

#4 - Talk Directly

 

The most direct way to increase your emotional intelligence is to find someone you are close to (such as your partner) and discuss how you feel. This will help you to understand how the other person feels and for you to release pent up frustrations. Releasing bottled up energy can assist in personal mastery, as there will be little holding you back. Good listeners are rare to find, but they are invaluable. 

 

#5 - Evaluation

 

Most people live in subjective bubbles. For example, the authoritarian manager can often have no idea how he or she comes across to others. You can evaluate how you make others feel in order to improve your emotional intelligence. Another way to evaluate your emotional intelligence is through journaling your daily experience and quiet reflection. Always remember that your relationship to yourself will be reflected in your relationship to others. 

 

How Minimalism Can Help to Clean and Strengthen the Mind

Strengthening the mind is largely viewed as an internal practice. Yet the outer environment also plays a large role in a healthy mindset. Minimalism is a relatively new phenomenon that can help to increase psychological strength in various ways. 

 

Benefits of Minimalism

 

It is easy to understand the personality of an individual by simply seeing the state of their bedroom or workspace. In many instances, these places will be disorderly with significant clutter. This is an obvious sign that the mind of the person is cluttered and messy, not organized and clear. By making a habit of cleaning our rooms and workspaces, we will have a stronger psychology and more space to make decisions. One of the easiest techniques is to simply make our beds every morning or to make a habit of keeping a tidy workspace. 

 

Minimalism can also increase revenue to a great degree. It involves cutting out what is unnecessary and focusing only on what works. This has massive implications for business and personal success. Too often, we allow thoughts, ideas, people, and materials into our space that just do not belong. By tidying the places where we most frequently visit, we get into the mindset of organization and cleanliness. We then start to tidy up other aspects of our lives. 

 

Minimalism for the Mind

 

Aside from material items, what people really need is information minimalism. All successful people reduce the information that they take in and only assimilate relevant data. People who are not so focused can spend all day online or on social media. Even the tips and tricks that they believe to be helpful on blog posts is wasted energy in most instances. Information that is not actively applied is wasted. Most of the material that people read is not actualized. 

 

To offset this, it could be a good idea to go on a data diet or reduce the time spend using modern technology. Alternatively, information channels should be streamlined or a break could be taken from social media. People need to spend more time away from technology so their minds can assimilate all the data and act on the pieces of information that are most relevant. 

 

Unsubscribe from all irrelevant emails that are cluttering up your various inboxes and undertake a digital cleanup. Online minimalism is now as important as keeping a tidy physical space. 

 

The 3 Best Techniques to Master Your Own Psychology

Understanding your own psychology is something that can be difficult to do, but is something that is foundational to wellbeing and happiness. While it is in many ways a lifetime process, there are some well-trodden paths to help you to understand yourself better. 

 

#1 - Meditation

 

Meditation is the best way to observe what you are thinking and at the same time transform how you think. In meditation, the practitioner gains the ability to separate himself or herself from personal thought processes. When the observer does not identify with these thoughts, they lack energy and dissipate over time. Then the practitioner can focus on positive thoughts as desired and watch them materialize in the outside world. While it takes a long time to attain levels of mastery over personal psychology, meditation alone has many benefits. The act of simply sitting and breathing for 20 minutes a day can do much to alleviate built up stress levels. 

 

#2 - Practice Habit Formation

 

Habits are what makes for a good quality of life. Our experiences are really just a collection of habits, and this includes mental habits of thought. Take a habit and make sure that you stick with it for at least 3 weeks, the verified minimum time it takes to establish a habit. Ultimately, you want to establish a habit of identifying negative thought patterns as they emerge. In this way, you stop their momentum before they become too powerful. A habit can be something as easy as making your bed every morning or something difficult like visualizing your goal for 20 minutes every day. It is best to pick something simple and stick with it initially. You can build on these habits and the results compound over time. Another habit could be writing a 1000-word blog post every day for 60 days. 

 

#3 - Concentration

 

While meditation can largely be defined as the art of non-focus, there are also many concentration techniques available that can serve to sharpen the mind. One practice consists of gazing at the tip of your nose for 5 minutes. This is a short and intense technique that works well for those with the discipline to stick with it. This focus can then be carried over to other areas of study. You will be able to apply your focus to different tasks. The skill of concentration is more important than ever before. Social media and other technological advances really serve to distract us, and the population is largely disassociated with little ability to focus on basic tasks.