S3 Ep05 - Dealing with Distractions

Welcome to the Zen Habits podcast, where we dive into how to work with uncertainty, resistance, and fear around our meaningful work. This is for anyone who wants to create an impact in the world and cares deeply enough to do the work. I'm your host, Leo Babauta, creator of the Zen Habits blog.

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Hello, hello, and welcome to another episode of the Zen Habits podcast. In this season, as you know, we're talking about the Zen of productivity. Productivity is about creating an impact and really being able to focus and bring our full selves to anything that we're taking on. But what gets in the way is distractions—resistance, fear, and uncertainty. In this episode, we're going to deal specifically with one of those obstacles, which is distractions.

I'm sure you're familiar with this obstacle. This is something that I think is universal. It falls into the realm of social media, it falls into the realm of notifications from messages, getting lost down a rabbit hole of Wikipedia or YouTube. Distractions are abundant, and they're everywhere.

We have distraction machines in our hands, in our pockets, and where we work. We work in a full field of distractions. So, how do we actually deal with that so we can create what we want to create and have the impact in the world that we want to have?

We're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about some common distractions, we're going to talk about some mindful techniques to minimize those distractions, and then something I think is really important: creating a focused work environment. So, let's go over all of these.

First of all, common distractions. We're not going to go too deep into this because I think you're probably aware of the most common ones. The most common would be our phones, specifically all kinds of social media. By social media, we can talk about anything where there's a feed, where there are updates that are constantly coming in.

Messages would be a kind of social media—WhatsApp, Telegram, text messages, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat. But also things like TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Netflix—these might not always be thought of as social media, but they definitely are. Reddit is another really big one.

So these are some common ones. We can lump them into social media, but they're not the only distractions. News—we might think of news as a good thing, but it can be a distraction. Your favorite website that has a blog, you know, Zen Habits can be a distraction. You might have a tech website you like to go to—Hacker News, the New York Times, or whatever your favorite sources of news or information are.

These might not be bad things necessarily, but they can be distractions. Even email could be a distraction. We might think of email as productive, but if what we want to do is focus on, let's say, writing something, and we're doing email, then email becomes a distraction.

What you might notice is that the things themselves aren't bad. YouTube is definitely not a bad thing. Podcasts, blogs—these are all things that I create, so I don't think any of them are necessarily bad. But it's the fact that we use them to get away from the thing that we want to be focusing on.

So really, anything could be a distraction. I could use food as a distraction. Exercise could be a distraction. Learning can be a distraction. Conversations with real people in real life can be a distraction if we're using them to get away, to escape, to distract ourselves from the main thing.

The main thing is: What did you decide you want to do today, this week, this year? What's going to have the impact that you care about? If you haven't identified that yet, then everything is a distraction because you're distracting yourself from figuring out the main thing.

The main thing is: What do I actually want to focus on? What's the big thing? It may not be just one thing—it could be several. But today, I want to do this one thing, or these two or three things, that are going to move me forward in this project that has the impact I want to have, or in these several projects that have that impact.

Maybe you have several things that are your big thing, but if you've chosen to do this one right now or today and you're distracting yourself by doing a bunch of busy work—taxes, budget, email, chores, cleaning your kitchen—then that can be a distraction if you're using it to move you away from what's most important.

So when we talk about common distractions, obviously phones and social media, and things on our computers, notifications—these are all common distractions. But actually, there are so many more that we don't think of as distractions, but they are because they're moving us away. Productive things—getting organized, decluttering our lives—these are amazing things. In and of themselves, they're not bad. Conversations with someone we care about—great. But I'm distracting myself with this conversation if I've chosen to do something else.

Now, maybe I decide mindfully that this is the most important thing—taking care of this person who's in a crisis is the most important thing right now. And so I consciously decide this is the most important thing, and I'm not using it as a distraction. That can be the case. But if you find yourself constantly procrastinating on a certain task or project, constantly going over here to take care of this emergency, then you're actually letting yourself off the hook, most likely.

It's hard to see that. If you have questions about this, feel free to email me at [email protected] or put a comment below the YouTube version of this podcast. Let me know what you think might be a distraction. Do you have a question about it? Do you need help? Getting a coach who can be outside of you to help you see it can also be helpful.

Okay, so how do we minimize these distractions and how do we create a work environment? What are some mindful techniques?

Actually, let's reverse this. Let's talk about a focused work environment. I think that an environment conducive to focus, that reduces distractions, is really important because our minds will just kind of... If you shot off some fireworks in this room, I’m going to pay attention to that, right? Our minds will go to distractions.

Social media, other apps, websites, and tech things are really good at distracting the mind and calling our attention, saying, "Hey, you want to be moving into this." They’ve perfected the art of it. So all of these things are calling for attention. If you have a thousand things calling for your attention in the environment you're in, you will pay attention to them.

If our work environment is filled with distractions, we're fighting a losing battle. It's like saying, "Oh, I'm trying to stick to a diet, but all of my favorite, most tempting foods are surrounding me. I'm just going to be really tough about it." You can do that for a little while. You have a limited ability to withstand those kinds of urges, but eventually, you'll cave in.

So why make it that hard on yourself? Why not get rid of those tempting foods? Put them outside of the house so they're not constantly making you drain your willpower, constantly making you resist, until finally, you give in. You can see that example with food. It's the same thing with distractions. If they're all around you, constantly calling at you, you can resist them for a little while, but you won’t be able to do it for very long.

So how do we create that focused work environment? Well, if you have a phone nearby, turn it off or put it on airplane mode and put it in a drawer or turn it upside down so it’s face down. Make sure there are no notifications, sounds, or buzzes—turn off any notifications.

On my phone, I like to turn off pretty much all notifications, other than the phone if I'm waiting for a call. But otherwise, message notifications—I will have them on, but there’s no sound, no buzzing, no vibration. I don’t like those kinds of things because if I'm talking with someone or trying to work and the phone is buzzing or dinging, I can't focus. So I like to silence the notifications. I like to put it on airplane mode, and/or put it into a drawer and not look at it.

On my computer, if I’m working, I also turn off notifications. You won’t see things popping up while I'm doing this podcast, writing, or doing anything. I turn off all notifications. If I want to check my messages, I’ll do it after I’m done with this task. If I want to check my email, I’ll do it after.

So, notifications—minimize them, silence them, block them, go into airplane mode, whatever you need to do to turn that off. I actually don’t think notifications are useful in most cases.

Okay, so notifications and the phone. If you want to not have distractions on your phone and use it productively, let’s say you want to read or you have books on there, or long-form articles saved on an app, airplane mode really works well. Also, not having apps that are going to call to you—messaging apps, sure, but what about deleting all the social media apps? I actually think you could delete all social media apps.

If there are certain websites you go to—let’s say you deleted Reddit, but you still go to the Reddit website—you can block those sites. In both Android and iOS, they have settings to block websites. You’ll have to Google it, but you can block websites if they’re calling to you a lot. If you’re like, "Ah, I deleted Facebook, but I’m constantly going to Facebook," or, "I deleted something, but I’m constantly going to the website," block the website so that even if you try to enter it into the browser, it stops it. Of course, you can always undo all of these things, but taking them out—it’s like creating a moat.

Okay, so that’s the phone. On the computer, same thing. You can create site blockers so that you don’t go to those websites, and you can say, "I’m going to have site blockers until 6 p.m." That’s when I can actually go and look—from 6 to 7, I’m going to go look at all those sites. But I’m not going to do it before 6 or after 7.

You can set up some times that work for you so that you can get a taste of those distractions, but they’re at times you’ve decided on intentionally. I actually think that can be really helpful, especially if you're going to certain sites a lot.

I also think having certain times for different things, like I mentioned—6 to 7 p.m., as an example, could be the time when you go and read all your news websites and social media. But you can do that for messaging, too. You might have certain times when you go and do your messaging, or if your work app is Slack or Microsoft Teams, or whatever it is—Asana, Jira—you might have certain times during the day when you go and check the messages and go through it all.

I actually like to go through my work app messages twice a day. That means I’m checking, but I’m not checking constantly. My team knows I’m not always on there. I do my email several times a day, but not all day long. I do my messages several times a day, but not all day long. I make sure that I am checking them at least once a day, if not several, but not all day long. I block off times when I’m going to be doing those things.

Then for the rest of the time, I block off time using full-screen mode. If I want to write, I’m in full-screen mode with my writing. If I want to take notes or brainstorm, it’s full-screen mode. If I’m going to record something, I close everything else out, clear out my desktop, and I’m just here recording—that’s all there is.

So that’s creating a focused work environment. I highly recommend full-screen mode for writing or any other kind of creating.

Let’s talk about some mindful techniques. Once we’ve created this full-screen mode, the first thing is to have some kind of intention. What am I actually going to focus on? If you don’t know the intention, you don’t know if there’s a distraction.

If you’re doing email, is that a distraction, or is that productive? Who knows, unless you have an intention? If you say, "Right now is my 30 minutes of email," you set a timer, and you have an intention—this is what I’m going to be doing—then you know that this is not a distraction, and going to check your social media is a distraction. If, instead, you said, "Right now is my time for writing, and for the next 30 minutes, I’m going to be writing," and then you go check your email, then you know email is a distraction. So, have an intention.

The second thing is to have a commitment. "I’m going to do this for 30 minutes. I’m blocking off a chunk of time, and I’m going to do this for the next 30 minutes." That’s a commitment. So there’s an intention, and then there’s a commitment. If you can stay accountable to that commitment, that’s also a really good thing. Mindful techniques start with intention and commitment.

The next thing is noticing—the mindful technique of noticing. Am I focused on this thing, or am I off doing something else? If I’m off doing something else, I just notice, like, "Ooh, I’m off doing that thing," and then I simply come back. I might breathe. I might notice I’m feeling some overwhelm or some anxiety with this particular task, feeling some fear. So I can breathe and be with the thing that’s coming up that makes me want to get away from this thing and distract myself.

Because distraction is simply an inability to be with the emotions that come up for you when you face this task, this thing you want to do. You want to have this difficult conversation, but then, "Ah, right now I need to go put out this fire," because you're dreading or fearing this difficult conversation.

Something comes up and you're like, "Ooh, I need to get away from that." We don’t realize this "Oof" part. What if we could realize, "Ooh, I’m trying to get away from this thing. What’s showing up here for me emotionally, in my body?" It's like, "Ooh, some anxiety." So, we can breathe and be with that anxiety, bring some compassion to it, like, "Ooh, you’re okay. You’ve got this." Then, turn toward the thing for at least a few seconds—maybe 10 seconds, 20 seconds. Can you write one paragraph? Can you do it for a minute? Can you do it for two minutes, then let yourself distract, and then come back?

That’s a mindful technique for dealing with distractions. With practice, we can notice more often and be with our anxiety more often, but it takes a lot of practice. I encourage you to set intentions, commit yourself, and then commit to practicing with the urges, the anxiety that comes up that makes you move away, notice when you do so, and then come back and practice being with the anxiety that’s stopping you.

Create a focused work environment. Shut down all of the notifications, turn on site blockers if you need them, and go full-screen mode. Then really be fully in with the thing that you've chosen to be fully in with.

That's what I've got for you. I hope this helps. I will talk to you later, my friends. Bye-bye.

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