Taming distraction

Not every plan goes to plan. Inspiration may not show up when we’d like it to. Getting into a ‘flow’ with our work can be impossible at times.

Distractions are everywhere.

⏺ Internal distractions happen when our day-dreaming, mind-wandering brain looks for a release of pressure.

⏺ External distractions are bright shiny anythings promising rewards: people, screens, programs, food, random tasks.

One of the best ways to deal with distractions - internal and external - is to trick ourselves by following a system or process to keep us on track.

A hack for our mind.

Whether it’s a timebox, a task sliced from a bigger piece of work, a creative constraint or a gamed activity - we now know there are things we can do to make work easier, more focused and more productive for us ... even when times are tough.

Thinking a to do list will still do is an old way of thinking and working.

To do lists have evolved - and no, not just to a tech version in an app! How we prepare to do the work has changed. There are new and better ways of thinking and working available to us.

These ways are used by some, unknown to many yet available to us all. We are in an era where how we work is ripe for the hacking. 

We're doing what we thought we couldn't do

“We’re doing what we thought we couldn’t do” - said a frontline worker in an agency I was speaking with last week.

 When new - and different - ways of doing things are forced on us, we have to find ways to make it work. We are responding and solving, getting around obstacles and finding our way through and over things.

Our ingenuity and adaptability is high. Yes, we are doing what we thought we couldn’t do. In some instances, we are now doing what people were trying to have us do years ago. We are doing what people had proposed, requested, asked for and suggested ... many times in the past.

It’s happening in finance, in retail, in medical and health care, in education and training, in human resources, with boards and governance and in industries and sectors all over the world. We are doing many things we thought we could not do.

Let this encourage you to keep finding the things we are currently saying can’t be done... that we know can be. 

Lighten the online meeting load

After so many online meetings Urgh! We’re foggy, brain-fried ... like we’re in a continuous conference.

This is the human experience of cognitive overload. But it’s exacerbated and multiplied by the load that’s coming via one channel - online. Yes, its different to face to face, next to each other, same room or space.

Here are 3 COGNITIVE LOAD COPING habits:

☀️Change state and break.

Take a short break between every meeting. Yes every one. It ‘releases’ the mental load you’ve been carrying. Like emptying a truck’s load. Don’t do back-to-back. Bad. Just 30 seconds, get up, move and BREAK your state.

☀️Stop soaking information and start sensemaking.

In every meeting, WRITE some handwritten notes. Not typed. Hand written. This is ‘externalizing’ information. It actively relieves those fried feels.

☀️Write down more than a meeting’s end points, actions or decisions.

Catch a quotable quote, a smile moment, a PHRASE that sounded good. This helps retain some focus.

And it’s ok... you’re not failing.

We’re all carrying around a huge concrete slab of shock, change, worry and uncertainty. That’s already some heavy stuff.

Break your state

Write it down

Catch a phrase

Getting closer

Rather than pushing my group workshops and group training programs all online in groups ... I’m going the other way. I’m going 1:1 or a small group of 2, 3...

Sure it’s taking me longer but I’m not going anywhere, and the closer conversations, engagement and interactions have been more personalized and joyous. We find out more about each other, how we’re managing, what our world is like ... and I set about transferring my skills and knowledge directly to you on capabilities like:

🌟Facilitating

⭐️Sensemaking & Cognitive Load Coping

✨Visuals - analogue and digital

💥Developing your own ideas and thinking

☀️Adapting your positioning and brand

💫Boosting your creativity and idea generation.

We don’t need to do what everyone else is doing. It’s easy to copy, follow a herd or pack or think ‘oh that’s what I have to do too’ in times like these. It’s equally a time when trying something different could be just what’s needed.

Are you experimenting or just following what others are doing in response to change?

Experiment, adapt and respond in line with who you are and how you think and work. It’s time to be even more a part of your services than less. No need to default to ‘copy’ because it’s not the only way. 

Trying to do it right

There’s plenty of new happening as we try new arrangements, routines and techniques. It’s worth observing ourselves when we’re doing this newness, if we’re trying to do them properly and perfect.

We might be trying to do online and virtual stuff ‘perfectly’ (you know, lighting, sound, camera angles and backgrounds).

Or trying to do working from home the ‘right’ way, or schooling children and remote teaching ‘properly’ ... and other things right, properly or perfect.

It’s natural to want to do well in new environments but there is also this glorious human capacity we have, and that is ... to learn. There are so many expectations we’re placing on ourselves (and others) as we get used to these new ways of thinking, working and living.

Perfectionism can arrive to fill spaces when we are worried or uncertain, dealing with new circumstances.

We wonder:

🐤Am I doing this right?

🐤How am I going?

🐤Am I good enough at this?

Yes, we must follow and adhere to the standards that are asked of us in these times. And then we can be easier on ourselves and others by allowing more ‘good enough’ in. It brings brightness, flexibility and adaptability to the things that don’t matter so much right now.