My Mind is Too Full. I Can't Focus [#2 #focus #distraction]

Welcome to the Own It Podcast with me, Nicole Hollar, where we're going to talk about stuff to help you get out of your way, take charge of your life, and, well, other stuff too. Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of Own It, the podcast with me, Nicole Hollar. I received a great question and it was about some tools or things to consider to have better focus. Now, I imagine all of us at some point have had some time, you know, hard time Focusing. Focusing. Apparently I'm having it right now on whatever words I wanna use. The reality though is that focusing is a lot more difficult now because there are so many distractions around us. And if you're somebody that works at home, I can only imagine what it's like during your workday. For some people, they're really excellent at home working and other people, they have a much more difficult time. There's so many things that can grab your attention At any time, especially if there are kids there. Now, I'm being a little bit specific when it comes to remote work and children because there are some things that we're going to have a more difficult time trying to put off to the side. But if we focus on the things that we can really control, it's going to really be about having awareness and accountability to the things that are most distracting to us. Mm-hmm. So if you consider your day, what are the things that pull you away from your focus? For me, I can tell you that it's the phone calls or the pings, the dings. So what I've learned is when I really need to hone in and focus on something, I just turn off the ringer. Whether you put it on do not disturb or silence it, it doesn't matter. Because distraction awareness is one of the number one things that you need to do in order to have better focus. What is it? Is it your phone, like the phone call? Is it the ding from an email or a text and you're looking one at a time? Or is it maybe your sudden need to look something up? Or maybe you got into, I like to call it the web hole, where you clicked on one thing and And that led you to 6 more things. And now you're booking a trip to Europe because you found something about the local commuter train and it led you there. You know, whatever it is, I mean, we've all been there, right? Like I already said, if you're home, maybe it's suddenly you wanna do laundry. Well, whatever is the thing that distracts you, if you can imagine that there was a scale, like a scale from 1 to 5, Mm-hmm. If certain things rank over a 3, you're going to need to learn how to put that to the side. Because the things that are 1 or a 2, you can probably just ignore. Anything that's a 3 or above, again, the phone, the text, the whatever it is, put it to the side. The first thing I would recommend to you do is to create a time block. Now, a time block is a specific time where you've allocated to, I'm going to return emails here. I am going to follow up on those phone calls there. And you want to give yourself a reasonable amount of time. And time blocks aren't just about work productivity. It's about anything, right? I mean, we've all had a weekend where you're like, oh, I have so many things that I want to do. I'm having a staycation. I'm home. I have nothing to do for days. And you realize that you've literally done nothing because you've had no time blocks or anything to anchor your day. So the day's just sort of drifted away. So what a time block does is it sort of helps you to stay focused and directed toward whatever the priority things are on your schedule or the things that you need to clean up during a day. Also, when it comes to prioritization, the second thing I recommend to people is something that I call TEVs. Your thought and emotion value scale. Everything in our life is, um, it's a priority or not, right? I mean, you have to get rid of the I shoulds. The I shoulds really do very little for people other than create guilt. And the biggest I should, I think, that I've ever heard is I should lose weight, I should change jobs, I should something that's probably for the betterment of themselves genuinely. But they just aren't. I should stop smoking, stop drinking, whatever it is, but they're just not ready to do it. So on the thought and emotion value scale, if it's not important to you, put it to the side. Just stop saying I should, because what you're doing is you're creating this visualization process in this cycle, having your mind continuously think about it but taking no action. And it's really just It's occupying a lot of valuable energy and resources in thought and focus and just recreating that cycle of why we don't make change in our life. So it's okay. This podcast is about owning it. Just table it. You don't have to lose weight right now. You don't have to stop smoking or curb your pizza habit. Not right now. Maybe you should. But if you aren't ready, Then table it for right now. There's nothing wrong with that. And then when you're ready to come back to it. Another thing I recommend to people, it's very basic. Make a list. Create a task list. Check that off during the day. I don't— if it's on paper, if it's on your phone, your computer, if you're old school, you know, you want to write it in a journal. As long as it works for you, make a list. Don't have your Post-it notes have baby Post-it notes though. You don't want to have like a sea of Post-it notes everywhere because that's mind cluttering too. I mean, I grew up in a space where I could see 6 different Post-it notes where they all said something similar. We want to create a little consolidation there, but create a list for yourself and if you need to prioritize on that list. All of these different tools that you use will help you to be more focused, and the more focused you are, the more productive you're going to be. That applies to me and everybody else. I show clients all the time the next thing that I do, which is create reminders. My phone, the reminders on my phone are orange. I have reminders on my phone that say things like grocery shop. Because if I've finished a client session or I'm done with this task for the day, or I've finished writing something for a workshop, and then of course I can jump right into the next thing, I might have a reminder that says, call insert friend's name. And people often tell me, they're like, Nicole, you're so good at remembering birthdays or whatever. I'm like, I'm not. I'm not. I'm really not. I cheat. And I'm not cheating. I'm just using— resources that are available to us guys. And some of the biggest violators, I mean, I've worked with a lot of people who self-profess that they're either introverts or have ADHD. And in many ways, it's for introverted people, and this is a sidebar, it's like, it's, I don't think that you really don't like people, you just don't want people messing with your peace. For people who say they have ADHD, and they very well may, One of the biggest things that I've ever realized is that people don't want to use lists. They don't tend to want to use tools to help them. And it's not something that I really understand. Use the tools available to us. There are so many things now, sometimes overwhelming. So find the thing that works for you. For me, it's just a simple reminder on my phone. Use tools. It's okay. And the final thing is have location anchors. How many people have bought gym equipment and that treadmill mostly gets used by the dog? Or you try to put the cat on because you saw that fun Instagram video, like that little chubby cat in the water meowing. You know, we do these things because it sounds like a great idea, but maybe that really doesn't work for you. And that's okay. If you're a home office worker, Is it healthy for you to be sitting on the couch with your laptop on your lap? Are you as productive? Is it good for your body? Can you carve out a space in your home that says, this is when I'm at work, and then when I'm not at work, that computer shuts down and I go to a different place in the house? I originally started talking about the gym. I think most people are more productive in a gym setting. Now, I've certainly heard plenty of people tell me they hate the gym because they're gross. I And that may be well and true depending on your environment, but maybe there is a different type of location that would work for you. So honor the things that work for you. This podcast, like I said, is about owning it, owning where you are, what you need. Be mindful of your behaviors and take accountability for them. If you're somebody who does let all of the distractions in the day pull you away from something that's a fluid flow, be mindful of it. Be accountable to it. It's okay. Assembly line workers know that in order to be most productive, right? That's why there's an assembly line. They're making widget after widget after widget. They don't have to change their flow, their thought process. So again, you want to make sure that you are time blocking Anything that could be simple distractions, put it to the side for when you can specifically focus on that one thing. Next, you want to prioritize using TEVS, the Thought and Emotion Value Scale. If it's not that important, put it to the side. Even if you think it's important, but you're just not ready to act on it, put it to the side. Create a task list, reminders for yourself, and honor the locations that work best for you. And remember, guys, this is your time. And as always, if you like this episode, please by all means give me 5 stars, follow the podcast so you can be updated for new posts and updates. And you can find me on most social media platforms at Nicole Hollar Coaching, or on my website where you can learn more about my wellness and empowerment coaching, as well as speaking engagement and books That I am currently writing.