Show Notes:
Do you ever find yourself ready to tackle a task, only to get pulled into a distraction that derails your plans? If you’re tired of battling procrastination and a lack of focus, this episode is for you. As part of our consistency series, you’ll learn a handful of practical, easy-to-implement strategies to reclaim your focus, boost your productivity, and make the most of your day.
In This Episode, You’ll Learn:
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The Two-Minute Rule: A simple strategy to build momentum by immediately completing any task that takes less than two minutes.
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The Pomodoro Technique: How to use a timer to stay intensely focused in short bursts, a favorite technique of the host.
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Mindset for Action: Why it’s critical to either “eat the frog” by tackling your hardest task first or create momentum by starting with the easiest.
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Positive Self-Talk: How a change in your inner dialogue can help you overcome the mental barriers to getting started.
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Creating a Distraction-Free Zone: Simple ways to minimize interruptions, from turning off notifications to using apps that block access to distracting websites.
Your Next Step
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Try a New Strategy: Choose one of the strategies from this episode and implement it today. See which one helps you combat procrastination and stay consistent.
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Listen to the Series: If you missed the previous episodes on consistency, be sure to go back and listen to them to get the full picture.
Episode Transcript
Hello, my friend. And welcome. Welcome to episode 14, the claim your Day podcast. Glad you’re here and joining in. We’re in the middle of a whole series on consistency because if you want to make the most of your days and your time, then you have to be consistent because those behaviors that we do over time that really add up to the life that we live. If you’ve just, if you’re just joining us and you miss some of those previous episodes, no worries.
You can listen to them right here, wherever you’re listening to this episode as well, as well as you can go to nickmazy.com and you can listen to some of the previous episodes there as well. So make sure you check out those previous episodes. But today we’re talking about, you know, procrastination and distractions. Look, I can’t be the only person that gets hit with the temptation of a little bit of procrastination, you know, or where distractions steal some of my focus and I get off track of it a little bit.
You know, I can’t be the only person. Does that happen to you at all? Is that what I would like to do? I think that, you know, what happens is just about all of us, you know, if we can be a little bit honest, you know, in some way, shape or form, maybe the things that distract me a little bit or that cause me to influence me to procrastinating some, you know, they might be a little bit different from you, but I think we are, we’re able to talk about some, some techniques, some things that we can do that one of, at least one of the suggestions is going to be able to help you to stay on track, to procrastinate a little bit less, to focus a little bit more so that you can do the things you need to do, be a little bit more productive, you know, and make the most of your days and your time, you know, so that you can achieve what you want.
Live, live by your values for you and your life and your family. And that’s going to be a great thing. So, you know, I don’t know if you’ve ever been there where, you know, you, you know, you need to do something. You’re going to complete this task, you’re going to check something off, and then suddenly everything else seems just so much more appealing. Maybe you instinctively are just out of habit, you know, pull out your phone and before you know it, you’re scrolling down social media.
It’s been 20 minutes and then, oh my gosh, you’re late for the Next thing and you gotta jump on it. And whatever that one task is that you were gonna knock out real quick, it’s done. It’s, it’s, it’s, it can’t happen. It can’t happen. You’re not gonna be able to get it. It’s not done. It’s just off the table. Cause you have to move on to the next thing or you find yourself doing some other little task.
You know, like for some people, it might be organizing their desk because they’re putting off doing some of those work tasks. And for me, organizing my desk is not what I used to delay doing. But maybe that might resonate with you. Procrastination is a distraction. See, they can derail us from even having the best intentions of what we’re going to accomplish and how we’re going to make the most of our time.
So if you ever felt like you’re constantly battling just that procrastination, that putting things off, you know, distractions, you’re not alone. You’re not alone at all. I said today we’re going to share and talk about just some practical strategies that you can implement. Really easy, really simple, you know, to claim your, your focus, to rein it in, regain it, and to have that productivity. I’m gonna share with you a handful of strategies, like I said, but I’m really gonna highlight some of the ones that work very well for me that are so helpful and to really be honest, they are so easy.
All right, here’s a, here’s another. Here’s one of the first strategies we talk about. And that is, it’s called a two minute rule. And basically, if a task takes less than two minutes, just do it immediately. This really works for some people because they’re able to just get off. For me, I do this sometimes. But what, what helps for. It’s helpful for me if I’m in the middle of something, I need to, I have sticky notes and I’ll write on a sticky note or on my little flip pad that I have in my POC at just about all times.
And that is, I’ll write that task down that I know I need to do when it comes up so I don’t forget it. And then I’ll kind of pair that with tracking what I need to do with one of these other techniques that I’m going to share with you in just one second. But what really works well with the two minute rule is breaking down your larger projects into smaller manageable tasks.
So when you break down those larger projects, sometimes when you have this huge thing to accomplish, it’s easy to procrastinate on it because you don’t have time to do all this big thing. But you might have time to do just a small task or a small step, a part of that big project. And that’s where it pairs well with the two minute rule that if you have a big project, you break it down into small steps and you can kind of just chunk off, hey, it’ll just take me a few minutes, I can knock out this, this and this.
And then you’re actually going to make progress toward that bigger goal, that bigger project by checking off those smaller little steps that only take just a minute or two or three each. So this is kind of the first two strategies kind of pair well together. Just break your bigger projects into smaller steps and then just be able to knock them out one by one. Kind of keep track of that.
That’s a very helpful way to kind of get the ball rolling and develop a little bit of momentum. Now this next technique, this next little simple strategy is one of my favorites. And I use it and oh my gosh, when I use it, it is so helpful. It’s basically like no matter what’s going on, it helps me to focus, it helps me to be productive, it helps me to really make progress and make the most of my time.
It’s called the pompadouro technique. And what it is, is basically it’s setting a timer where now I use 25 minutes. And in different situations sometimes I might adjust that to the time I have available. But I love it because I can set a timer on my watch. And what it does is it allows me to say, hey, for this next 25 minutes, I’m going to focus on doing this one thing or this one group of tasks.
And when I’m, when I’m doing that, that’s all I’m going to focus on. And I’m just going to knock it out. And it helps, like I said, it helps my focus, it helps my productivity. And if things come up that I need to, oh, I really should be doing this. And it’s not what I’ve already determined that I’m going to focus on for that block of time, then I just write it down.
Like I said, I’m on a sticky note or my flip pad and I’ll come back to it later. But during that time when that timer is running, I am focused on whatever that Group of tasks, a specific task that I’m doing, that’s what I’m focusing on. And then in between, once that timer goes off, I make sure I give myself a little bit of a break because that it actually helps kind of reset the mind and, and it helps with the next time that I’m a little block of time that I’m going to use.
So that way I’ve taken a little bit of a break. Maybe I’ve walked around me, I’ve gotten a glass of water, maybe chatted with a colleague or something like that to actually really give my brain a break. And then, oh, I gotta jump back in and I set my timer again on my watch and I’m diving into that next task or that next little thing that I’m working on.
It’s very, very helpful. You know, one of the things. All right, so the next thing is one of the things that leads to sometimes some procrastination and lack of productivity and all that is some of the self talk, you know, some of the things that we’re telling ourselves, oh, it’s gonna take so much work. I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to do it. I really don’t want to do it.
And this self-talk, it goes on in the background. So sometimes you might not even realize it’s going on. But just really saying a few positive, encouraging words to yourself, you know, in your head or even out loud a little bit, it can be what you need to be able to just say, hey, you know what, I’m going to knock this thing out. Even just saying that to yourself and then doing it can help you to start.
I was just thinking I’ll have to do a little bit. I give a shout out to Mel Robbins. It’s kind of related to self talk, but she has that five second rule where she does a little bit of a countdown and then like 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, go. And sometimes if you’re really sitting there, you’re really struggling with just taking action on something and you’re putting it off.
You might even just give yourself a little bit of a countdown. Say the word go after you hit one and actually just start doing what you’re going to do right Then obviously you can check out Mel Robbins for a whole lot more on that. She’s got a book, a whole bunch in her podcast for the five second rule, but that just could go in right there. I just thought of that.
So I wanted to make sure I shared that with you. All right, now these last two, these last two, like, kind of techniques or strategies, they really are in direct opposition to each other. But I gotta share both because some work for some people and some work for. One works for some people, and one works for the other people. So you really can just find out which. What works best for you.
The first one is called. It’s the eat the frog technique or approach. This one was really popularized by Brian Tracy. He’s got some phenomenal work out there in productivity and goal setting for a long time. All right, but basically what it’s saying is to tackle that most challenging, the most difficult, the most unpleasant thing that you got, that task that you just don’t want to do first thing in the morning, first thing in your day, just knock it out.
Pretty much just saying that once you do that, everything else is going to be a lot easier, a lot smoother sailing, a lot less miserable. And you’re good. You already got that momentum going and you’re rocking and rolling. It’s called, you know, eat the frog. And the other side of that is, you know, basically creating easy momentum. You know, what’s that easiest, smallest, simplest, not so bad task is that thing that you can knock out.
First thing. I said they work. They sound like they’re the exact opposite. But basically what they both are doing is either knocking out the hardest, most challenging, unpleasant thing first or knocking out the easiest, most pleasant, smallest, simplest thing first. Whichever one you’re choosing, you’re really creating some momentum for yourself. You know, for me, I actually, I do a lot better when I create momentum initially. And so that would be just, hey, get, get the ball rolling, doing some small, simple things.
And then once I’ve kind of started a little bit, then I might jump into the pompadouro technique where I’m setting that timer and I’m really diving in because it takes a minute for my brain and body just to get going. That might be a. That might correlate with, as I’m getting older, the. The more that I need to rely on those small, simple, easy steps to start off with.
But, you know, I digress a little bit. So try them both out, you know, see what works best for you. Because you’re going to find that, hey, what works best for you might be a little bit different. And that’s great. You know, we’re all different. And that’s why I like to share a lot of different strategies here, because you can try one. Hey, maybe the, maybe the.
Using the timer doesn’t work the best for you, you know, maybe it’s the two minute rule and you just say, I’m going to knock this out, this out because they’re really, really quick. Or maybe, you know, you need to eat the frog technique and, and you have to tackle the most challenging, difficult thing very first thing. And then the rest of it, you’re just rocking and rolling and you keep that momentum going.
Try the different things out to see what works best for you. I’m gonna share a few, just real quick, a few things about, you know, kind of managing the distractions because that might help you out a little bit. One is just creating a distraction free workplace. You know that it might be turning off the notifications on your phone, it might be having less visual distractions or making it really quiet, you know, so there’s less auditory distractions with, with my workplace as well as at home.
I can’t take advantage of that much. There’s distractions all the time. It seems like the one, one of those that I do use a lot is disabling the notifications on my phone. I limit them a lot anyways, just all throughout the day. But on my phone it has a little button where I can have something like do not disturb or focus time and it’ll knock out all the notifications.
Now if I’m expecting a call or something from my wife, I can go into it and say if someone calls me on this certain list it’ll still go through. But besides that, no, no notifications. And that really helps me to really be able to focus as well as sometimes just, just putting my phone away, flipping it over or something like that can help me from checking it as much and having that distraction.
They actually have programs and websites out there that can limit your distractions on your computer, prevent you from going to certain places, and actually can turn the Internet off if that’s a distraction for you. They got them on your phone as, as well as a computer and different apps and tablets and everything’s got them nowadays. That might be a route for you if you’re getting distracted a lot when you should be if know doing some other things and really to help you be able to focus on what you need to be doing, what you know you need to be doing, that you need to be doing for you and your life and, and your family to make the most of your time.
You know, another quick thing that you could do to help limit distractions is really practice, practice that time batching. Now we talked about this in a previous episode but also related to this would be, you know, setting that timer, saying, hey, I’m going to do this group of tasks and I’m gonna set the timer on it. And even scheduling that, I’m kind of grouping a few different kinds of strategies together.
You can batch together the tasks that you’re doing so there’s less switching between different tasks in different contexts. You can set your time, actually schedule that time that you’re going to focus and set the, set the timer on your watch for that time so that, you know, hey, I’ve only got five more minutes. I’m gonna focus. I’m gonna knock it out. Now. I know I rattled through a lot of different strategies here.
That’s where you can kind of go back and listen to the episode. I definitely highlighted the ones that work very, very well for me. But don’t. Just because it worked really well for me, don’t ignore the other ones because you’re a little bit different than me. That’s great. But some of the things that I don’t use as much because they’re not as effective for me, they might really resonate with you, and it might be that home run that you’re looking for.
So I didn’t want to just share the ones that are very helpful for me. But just remember, like, you know, when you can do different things and you use some of these strategies to combat the procrastination, to limit those distractions, it’s going to really help you to increase that productivity, get the things done, you need it done. It’s going to help you to be more efficient, you know, get more done in less time.
You know, we have so many demands for our time and attention these days. You’ve got to be effective, you got to be efficient. That’s gonna help you with your productivity. It’s gonna help you to improve your focus. You know, limiting those distractions, it’s gonna help you improve your focus, which means that you’re gonna be able to work more deeply, you know, and that’s gonna help with being more effective, but you’re gonna have higher quality work and it’s gonna be of just a, a greater value because you’re being able to improve that focus.
And when you can increase your productivity, improve your focus, and help yourself to work on the. And get those done and to focus on that and those values, I mean, that’s going to greatly reduce your stress. And a lot of us, a lot of us can really use some of that great stress reduction. All right, so I’ve gone through a lot of strategies here. I hope they help you, help you to just really, as we say, claim your day by combating that procrastination, limiting those distractions, making the most of your time so that you can do the things you need to do for you, your life, your family, to live according to your values and live your best life.
All right, my friend, we go ahead and sign off here real quick. Hope you have a great day. Can’t wait to talk to you in the next episode. We still have a few more episodes in the consistency series to take advantage of all of it. Find out what works for you and make the most of your life. All right, here’s to you, my friend. Talk to you soon.