Being attracted by bright shiny objects seems to be hard wired into us.
Go round the supermarket shelves and there’s always lots of things with bright flashes (often yellow here in the UK) proclaiming “new and improved” or similar promises.
Apple release a new version of their iPhone near enough every year.
Microsoft regularly release new operating systems and PC (and other electronics) manufacturers upgrade their offerings.
And in internet marketing it seems as though there’s a new bright shiny object released almost every hour of every day.
So how can you avoid the inevitable distraction?
Short of turning yourself into a hermit, it’s not totally possible to block out all the distractions caused by bright shiny objects.
By their nature, they’re designed to attract you – they wouldn’t be doing their job if they weren’t.
But learning to focus more (or at least more often) can help minimise the inevitable disruption of being side tracked and following a rabbit hole.
Having a routine helps
We’re quite good at following habits once we’ve established them.
Opinions vary but it’s generally thought that making or breaking a habit takes between 14 and 28 days (some pessimists claim a bit longer, maybe up to 8 weeks) but much will depend on how ingrained the habit is and how much you want to get rid of it.
This product can help you break unwanted habits and ease into new ones.
Whether you go for that or not, take a step back from what you do, day in, day out, and analyse it.
I find that tapping what I’ve mostly been focused on for the last 30 minutes into an Excel spreadsheet highlights things fast – typically within a day or two – and brings me closer to being back on track.
If you want to do that, open up a spreadsheet like this one and type in what your main focus has been for the last 30 minutes.
Do that every half hour – you’ll forget or try to fool yourself if you leave it until the end of the day – and you’ll be amazed to see how soon patterns show up.
Then apply the 80/20 rule to whatever manifests itself.
If your main distraction is Facebook, block out some time to catch up – maybe 10 minutes, 3 times a day. With an alarm on your phone to remind you that you need to get back to doing some real work.
Of course, if you use Facebook to earn money then that would be different. But you still shouldn’t be spending most of your time on the site “liking” posts and photos and videos.
You’ll know (even if you don’t care to admit it out loud) where your time sinks are soon enough.
Some of them will be the new, improved, bright shiny objects that are sure fire ways to earn cash if the sales copy is to be believed.
And if you want to know what some of those triggers are (and aren’t offended by swearing) then this post is worth reading.
It’s written by a copywriter and shows you how easy it is for the less-than-truthful marketers to write the kind of hype that often accompanies those bright shiny objects that seem so attractive at the time but lost their appeal soon after you’ve bought them.
Discipline helps, even if it’s only some of the time
Since we seem to be hard wired to welcome distractions into our lives, it’s important not to get too wound up when you get distracted.
The more important option is to recognise that it’s happened and get back on track sooner rather than later.
Sleeping on new offers and re-reading them in the cold light of day the next morning works well.
It’s maybe not too surprising just how many lose their appeal after a good night’s sleep.
Setting aside some “play” time can work as well, so long as that doesn’t sprawl and take over the “work” time.
Set some time aside to figure out the best routine for you.
Then stick to it reasonably closely, using the spreadsheet I shared earlier (or any other technique you’ve used and that works) to bring you back on track when you drift. Much the same as a plane or a ship will continually update their course.
And if you’ve got any comments about minimising the distractions caused by bright shiny objects. feel free to add a comment below.