4 Reasons You May Be Easily Distracted and How to Overcome It
Many of the best rewards in life are only attained with consistent effort, hard work, and focus. But for many Americans, achieving goals like a promotion at work or launching a business is all but impossible. It’s not because they lack ambition.
Instead, it's because they are easily distracted. Distractibility is a very common personality trait, but for many people, it goes beyond a quirk. If you're easily distracted, you could find it challenging to accomplish long-term objectives, make a positive impression with your boss, or remember crucial responsibilities in your life.
Don’t worry – we’ll break down four reasons why you might be easily distracted. We’ll also go over some tips so you can overcome this challenge.
Why Are You Easily Distracted?
If you ask yourself the above question, you might be stymied. After all, there are lots of distractions in our modern society. Still, most Americans are distracted for four main reasons.
High-Stress Job or Lifestyle
A high-stress job or a complicated lifestyle can do a real number on your mental health and your ability to focus. If you manage multiple people at work, run a successful career or business and take care of kids at home, or study at college while holding down a long-term job, you might have difficulty concentrating because of all those separate stressors.
High stress is not just bad for your mind; it's also bad for your body. Stress can cause discomfort at the cellular level and make your immune system weaker over time. In terms of mental health, high-stress careers or lifestyles are also known to lead to cognitive disorders eventually.
Why? Suppose you are constantly worrying about multiple other stressful factors in your life. In that case, it’ll be difficult – if not impossible – for you to focus on a single thing for an extended period of time.
Procrastination Habits
Of course, many Americans also struggle with procrastination. From childhood into adulthood, we are given tasks and assignments to complete with set deadlines. Unfortunately, many of those deadlines are as arbitrary as homework pages.
As a result, they are carrying those habits into college and their careers. Procrastination can make it difficult to focus on your task as it involves kicking your objectives down the road repeatedly until it’s not possible anymore.
Even worse, a habit of procrastination could train your brain into looking for distractions unconsciously. Your brain may be used to doing everything it can to avoid getting down to brass tacks.
No Goals or Objectives
Other individuals suffer from another cause of easy distractibility: a lack of overall goals or life direction.
Not having any long-term objectives or goals to work toward cannot only be demoralizing, but it can also make it difficult for you to focus on any task. After all, we need the motivation to stick with long-term work or get through challenging situations.
Without a goal or objective to work toward, you may find it very hard to focus on a task with any real seriousness.
Biological Reasons
Lastly, some people are easily distracted not because of a habit or societal factors but because of neurochemical disorders or other biological reasons.
Some people might find it challenging to focus and sit still, especially during calm or quiet activities like a classroom session or a workday. While medication can help, some of these symptoms may be persistent for life. Those with such disorders or other biological reasons for distractibility must develop strategies to overcome these unique challenges.
Overcoming Distractions with Smart Strategies
No matter why you are easily distracted, whether it’s for one of the reasons above or something else, you can overcome distractibility and learn to focus your mind on the task at hand through a few lifestyle changes and other strategies.
Lower Stress Levels
For starters, consider lowering your stress levels in any way possible. High stress makes it very difficult to concentrate, whether the pressure comes from your work, your personal life, or some other factor entirely.
By lowering your stress levels, your brain will be calmer and more alert, and you’ll be able to focus on your tasks without panicking about something other than your current goal.
Create and Follow Focus-Friendly Habits
Next, try to create habits that can help you learn how to focus. These include:
- Time yourself in 15-minute increments and see how productive you were. You can also use the same 15-minute timing method to get as much work done as possible at your desk.
- Read a book before bed instead of scrolling social media endlessly.
- Get a good night’s rest every day.
- Disconnect your phone or leave it away from your desk when you need to work.
- Remove social media and other distracting apps from your mobile device.
- Don’t try to multitask to save time. Multitasking lowers your concentration and can lead to more distractions. Contrary to popular belief, no person can genuinely multitask; our brains are only wired to do one thing at a time.
Set Objectives at the Start of the Day
As soon as you wake up, write down a few goals you want to accomplish by the time you return to bed. Doing this will give you some clear benchmarks for success and make it more difficult to procrastinate.
For instance, you might make your bed right at the start of the day. Doing this will give you an instant accomplishment to celebrate, helping you tackle your next tasks more enthusiastically.
This method can also be particularly effective if you don’t currently have any wider or long-term objectives. Even small goals can help you get moving and focus on what you need to accomplish without getting distracted.
Give Yourself Short Timeframes
You’ll do a better job accomplishing your goals if you don’t give yourself excessively long deadlines. For every goal you write down, give yourself between 15 minutes and three hours to accomplish it. This should cover the most common tasks over the course of a regular day.
Balance Your Diet
You are what you eat, and if your diet isn’t ideal, you could find it difficult to maintain energy levels throughout the day. Folks who are chronically fatigued or exhausted are naturally distractible.
Take a hard look at your diet and make sure you’re eating enough of each basic food group. You can also use effective supplements to round out the nutritional requirements for your body by prioritizing certain vitamins and minerals. Some of the best supplements can even improve your cognitive or physical energy.
Hope Health’s Mind Capsules are just one example. They offer an organic and effective ingredient list including L-Glutamine, Ginkgo Biloba, and St John’s Wort to help you focus and benefit from long-lasting energy.
Summary
In the end, it’s up to you to take charge of your life and use the strategies described above to focus up and conquer your distractibility. It may be hard – in fact, it will almost certainly be very difficult! Learning how to focus and eliminate distractions will pay dividends in your life, both professionally and personally.
Try our Mind Capsules today in conjunction with the tips above. You might just see improvements to your focus immediately!
Sources:
Break the Cycle of Stress and Distraction by Using Your Emotional Intelligence | HBR.org
Psychology of procrastination: Why people put off important tasks until the last minute | APA.org