SLAYING THE DISTRACTION DRAGON

READING: WORK SMARTER, NOT LONGER

I'd love to send everyone to meditation camp for focus training. It would be great. By the end, we could possibly smash bricks using only our minds, or something. Or maybe our assignments would just get turned in on time.

Meditation camp isn't in the cards, unfortunately, but there are multiple other tricks the pros use to stay focused, and that's what we're talking about today.

But first, it should be stated that there are different kinds of distractions. We have, of course, the real-world distractions like wandering off to look in the fridge for a snack for like the 57th time, and then there are the more deadly, worm hole distractions online—but I won't name them. You know what they are. (Cough. Social Media. Cough.)

Thankfully, the same technology that brought us social media is also now protecting us from it. There are tons of paid and free browser add-ons and apps that gently flick us on the ear whenever we try to wander away from the library website onto, say, Instagram. I admit that I occasionally need these ear flicks, as my attention span often resembles a dog's when there are squirrels about.

Of the many currently out there, my favorites are Time Warp and Social Nanny, both free add-ons to Google Chrome.

In addition to online distractions, we also have the classic "real-world" distractions like aforementioned trips to the fridge for snacks. These are less easily defeated since we can't hire someone to follow us around and poke us with sticks when we try to leave our desk. (Or can we?)

To master distractions both online and off, first sort out the reason for the distraction. Obvs, we're procrastinating because we don't want to be doing what we're supposed to be doing. There's often more to it than that subconsciously, though, and each of these scenarios calls for a different approach:

1. "I don't want to do this because I'm not sure where to start."

Big projects or assignments are daunting. I feel you. If this is the case, don't look at the big picture. Instead, smash that picture into smaller daily or hourly pieces and set time limits for them. For instance, you don't have to write the entire research paper today; you just have to find a topic and three sources before 7 p.m.

Creating smaller tasks like this makes the project more manageable, and that sense of completion when we meet our milestone for the day or hour is just so satisfying. Use a timer to track how long the task takes, and you'll also see if you're falling behind. This lets you know if you need to reevaluate how much time you should allot the project to finish in time, which is a major bonus since we all (or at least we should) hate all-night cram sessions. See also: the previous lessons on calendars and To Do lists.

2. "I can't concentrate on this one thing because I have too many other things to do!"

High school is famous for demanding serious multi-tasking from students. Sometimes we have so much to do and keep track of that it becomes difficult to concentrate on one thing at a time.

When this happens, create a list of the things that are nagging at you—other schoolwork, chores around the house, emails you need to send, whatever. Then, put the list away completely out of sight. If you like, you could even use your calendar or To Do list to schedule a time for all of these to get done (hint: that time is not now). With this method, we physically and mentally put distractions aside for later in order to concentrate on the project that needs doing now. It's like a self-fake-out.

3. "I feel like a zombie. I'm way too tired to do this right now."

Sleep is a big issue. In fact, we'll be working through a whole lesson a bit later on. For now, know this: the "power nap" is so named for a reason. I'll grant that there's a difference between being slightly tired and being so exhausted that trying to sit in front of a computer is pointless because nothing is going to get done anyway. If you fall into the total exhaustion camp, consider catching up on some zzzs. If that's not possible, try this guide to power naps.

If time for sleep is nowhere to be found, go the opposite route and get that blood pumping with a five-minute cardio circuit like jumping jacks, stair running, or lapping the block a time or four. It seems insignificant, but moving around for even five minutes raises your heart rate and causes more oxygen to flow to that poor, tired brain. It's like, science and stuff.

4. "I can't stop singing along to my musical jams/watching TV while I work, but strangely, no work seems to be getting done."

This is a pitfall for almost everyone. Truth: most people will tell you that they work better with music or the television on, but most people are wrong. Hearing other things with English words being spoken aloud while trying to think thoughts in English words is almost never, like about 97% of the time, productive. It's true. The sounds of silence probably sound weird, but embrace them, or at least, embrace instrumental or ambient musical jams. The TV? No way.

5. "This isn't fun. I'd rather be watching a movie/playing soccer/going to a party…."

This distraction comes to us all. It's hard to give a pep talk like "But school is the best! Studying is way more fun than spending time with friends!" and feel honest about it. When this happens to us, we need a splash of cold hard truth: would we rather spend three hours procrastinating and then two hours doing the assignment, or two hours doing the assignment and then three hours doing something fun?

Procrastination time may be more enjoyable than working, but it's definitely not as fun as real, live fun. Give me the real, live fun any day of the week, or all seven of them even.

The best solution? A wake up call. For an entire day, go ahead and procrastinate whenever you feel moved, but log the time honestly in a free time tracker like Toggl. You're basically clocking in and out of procrastination. At the end of the day, check your total to see how much precious time was wasted into the procrastination abyss. Prepare to be shocked.

Why I Seem to Mention Timers a Lot

It's true. I talk about timers a lot. In fact, time tracking is my biggest productivity secret in general. Being "on the clock" helps us keep our head in the game and measure how on track we are to finish by the deadline. On top of that, seeing how much time we spent watching cat videos always shames us into working smarter, not longer.

Honestly, if I could only recommend one thing to slay distractions, this is it. Plenty of these apps, like Toggl, work online, and others are mobile-device only. If mobile is your thing, check out the free app HoursTracker, or go whole-hog with the amazing, but not-free, RescueTime.