Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot of about how to keep focused. There are so many things I want to experience and accomplish in my lifetime, especially financially, but most of the time I just get distracted with something unimportant and unproductive.
I’m happy with how my goals list has been coming along, but at the same time I know that I could have accomplished more if my phone wasn’t constantly buzzing with notifications, or I wasn’t instinctively logging into Facebook every hour (sometimes when I’m already logged in!).
Take yesterday for example. On Friday night, I made a mental list of things I wanted to get done before the new week started. But in true form, by the time Sunday afternoon rolled around not one thing on my list had been done.
So, I wrote all of those things down in the hopes that physically crossing them off would help motivate me. But when I would start one task, I would remember something else I wanted to do, leading me to abandon the first task for that something else.
This pattern continued all day, and now, at 10 pm on Sunday night, the only thing I was able to cross off my list of sweeping my apartment’s floors, preparing my application for a new passport, writing at least two new blog posts, answering all of my emails, going for a run, and starting to read Robert Brown’s Wealthing Like Rabbits, was going for a run. At least it was a good run. 5km in 35 minutes, my new record!
One thing my HB has been trying out is this Mac app called Self Control to help him, quite obviously, with his self-control in terms of online distractions. Essentially it blocks certain websites from your browser for a set amount of time. He told me the first time he tried it he found himself trying to unsuccessfully log into Facebook at least 5 times.
I’m sure if I tried to block Twitter, Instagram, and Perez for 24 hours I’d find myself trying to check those sites more than I’d like to admit. That first trial was about a month ago, and he’s kept using it to help focus while working at home or when he finds himself in a never-ending social media checking loop.
So this got me thinking. If we all used this kind of app that prevented us from being distracted, would we pay our debt down faster, find more ways to make money better, and become financially free faster? Quite possibly. I’m looking at my HB right now and he’s actually reading Robert Brown’s Wealthing Like Rabbits book!
Two of the things I really want to do to improve my finances is to buy my first home and invest better. In order to do both of those things I need to educate myself, but whenever I think about picking up a book or reading a blog post about real estate or investing, I get distracted by something else.
So, for the next little while I’m going to try to block certain websites and not check my phone as often in order to spend more time focused on things that actually matter to my livelihood. With this and my spending ban, I’ll hopefully be on track to start off the New Year more focused than ever!
What distracts you the most in your life? How do you find your focus?
