Clearing Your Mind of Useless Distractions Helps You Focus on the Important Things in Life
How to keep your wandering thoughts from taking you off track
Distraction: dis·trac·tion | \ di-ˈstrak-shən — Merriam Webster
1 : something that distracts : an object that directs one’s attention away from something
2: the act of distracting or the state of being distracted, mental confusion
Distractions are the bane of focus.
We can’t always avoid them, and they have the ability to ruin the best of days.
Most of the time, distractions are obvious and right in front of our face, tickling our brains, demanding our attention — begging to be acknowledged and noticed. We usually don’t have to look very far — or wait very long — for obvious interruptions to make themselves known.
But there’s another form of intruder — the outliers, skirting the edges of our consciousness. Sometimes they seem to have a mind of their own, and a very persistent personality.
The problem? These minor annoyances, if left unchecked, can become huge disruptions in our lives. Like an aggravating gnat buzzing in your ear — the one you can’t see, but still irritates the hell out of you.
The reason we’re peeved by these unwelcome visitors is they’re typically unwanted, unexpected, and untimely. And when an unforeseen nuisance affects our concentration or stalls our momentum, our lives default to a state of hold — leaving us in stand-by mode until the alleged emergency is resolved.