Stay Focused

I am easily distracted.

While writing this post, I’ve checked out the play-by-play of an Indiana Pacers playoff game, my Facebook page, modified how my mobile phone displays apps, and wandered off to get another glass of iced tea.

Sometimes this is a good thing. My brain needs to be refreshed every twenty minutes or so. But it is easy to become so distracted that I never get anything done.

Here are some tips that have helped me to cut down on this:

Turn off some of your email and text notifications. What, you say?!

Few things derail a thinking moment more than a “ding” announcing that someone (you don’t yet know who) has sent you an email or text. You stop thinking, pick up your phone, and see that the email is from a clothing company that is running a sale.

Or a text from someone I could easily chat with later. With most of us receiving dozens of these each day, we spend so much time resetting our minds that we easily fall behind.

While each phone is a bit different, I turned off all notifications for email. No sound, no indicator. Just off. Unless I am waiting for a specific email, there is simply no need to be alerted to them. I also turned off the sound notification for my texts. Since texts can be a bit more urgent than emails, I did not turn off the visual notification indicator. These settings allow me to not be interrupted and only look at them when I actually have time to do so.

Limit Social Media. I mentioned that I wandered over to my Facebook page. If I didn’t need to be on social media for real estate, I probably would delete the app. It is addictive.

But there is hope. You can install the phone app AppBlock which allows you to set a limit to how long you can be on Facebook, Instagram, or any number of social media apps. I have mine set to no more than ten minutes per hour until evening. Then I have two hours to play. When you reach the limit, it blacks out the app and forces you to leave. It is available on both Android and IOS.

For my desktop/laptop, I use the StayFocused extension for Chrome. Other apps and extensions are available, depending on the phone and browsers you use.

Turn off the phone. There are times during the day when I simply turn off my phone ringer so that I can get a project finished. Some agents tell their clients and other agents that they are available to chat only at certain times. That approach doesn’t work for me, but it is one way to handle the random interruptions.

Regardless of your approach, it is important to respond to your clients as soon as is possible. Just do it in a way so that you can get your work finished.