We all get distracted. Some of the distractions are brought on by others, but a lot of the time, we do things to distract ourselves. We browse through email and social media instead of getting right to work, we get home and turn on the TV to zone out. We are on our phones whenever we need to take a break. We cause these distractions for ourselves throughout the day without ever giving much thought to what it costs us in the long run.

Getting distracted will greatly diminish how much you can get done in a given day. You lose time whenever you’re distracted. It could be a minute while you check email, a couple of seconds while you look over at your phone to see why it is pinging or flashing or the half hour or longer when you respond to a Facebook post. You lose additional productive time and focus while you’re trying to figure out where you were at and what you are supposed to be doing. I am sure you know what I mean. The time it takes to ‘get back into it’ is often longer than the time of the actual distraction. And it all adds up!

By itself, it may not seem like much, but if you have to add up these distraction times multiplied over weeks, months, or even the year, I believe you would be shocked by how much time it would add up to. It’s a lot of progress that you aren’t making on what you’re working on. It may be the difference between getting a deal or not or completing a proposal by the deadline or not being able to meet a potential client for a coffee meeting because you don’t have time. Whether you like it or not, time is money! And when you lose time, that, in reality, is your business slowly leaking through your fingers. 

How many hours of quality time could you be spending on your business instead of going through emails, spending time on your phone, going through Facebook or doing another Google search. Even if it’s just a few minutes here and there, all these distractions add up and in wasted time and it’s time you will never get back.

If you feel like you are sometimes out of control and time is slipping through your fingers, then it’s time to take back control by cutting out as many distractions as you can throughout the day. Are you willing to do that?

To your timely success!