"Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength." 
- Corrie Ten Boom

 

I dropped my kids off at the movie theater on Sunday night and planned to spend the time working on my Weekly Peptalk.

 

I sat down with my laptop, alone, PJs on, cup of tea at hand.

Ready for productivity.

 

And then…

 

I got distracted … 

 

I’ll just do a Facebook post about my lovely couple of days at my daughter’s dance comp, I thought… and then scroll a little (or a lot)... and then reply to comments … and then… and then… an hour later…

 

Where was I?

What was I meant to be doing with this time?

What had I planned to do?

 

I feel confident in saying I’m not the only person this happens to.

If not Facebook, some other distraction takes us away from what we planned to do.

And before we know it that chunk of time has slipped away. 

 

I had to giggle when I realised what I was planning to share this week was from the distraction, or rather indistraction guru Nir Eyal. 

 

Nir Eyal shares simple-to-understand-and-apply insights and strategies that help us understand why we get distracted and how to be less distracted (or even claim the superpower of being indistractable) in a world that throws distractions at us left, right, and centre.

 

I resonate most with Nir's emphasis on personal responsibility. 

 

I'm a huge believer in self responsibility.

 

Contrary to what we may think,

distraction is not something that happens TO us. 

 

Distraction is an action that we ourselves take. 

 

We can blame Facebook, instagram, our phones, and all the beeps and bings all we like.

But these are just tools.

It's up to us whether we use them as tools, or if they use us as distractions.

 

The above mentioned are examples of external trigger - something on the outside that pulls our attention away from what we planned to be doing. 

 

There are endless external triggers happening all around us all day, every day.

 

External triggers are not the biggest cause of distraction though.
 

Our internal triggers are.

 

Internal triggers are uncomfortable internal states or emotions. 

 

Distraction, is our way of escaping these uncomfortable sensations.

 

A common internal trigger is worry. 

 

Not only does worry steal our joy.

It steals our attention.

It steals our time.

It steals our productivity.

 

I think June is a great month to focus on being less distracted and more focused.

 

As we head towards being half way through the year, it’s a poignant reminder of how time can slip away when we give in to our external triggers, and more significantly, our internal triggers.

 

I have much more to share from Nir Eyal. He's an awesome practical and pragmatic teacher. For this week, I’ve chosen to start with a strategy to overcome distractions that are caused by the internal trigger of worry.

 

I've created this short video lesson for you, edited from an interview with Nir Eyal on Steven Bartlett's podcast ‘The Diary Of A CEO”.