Removing Distractions and Focusing on Getting Down to Business

Next Wednesday I’m heading to Danvers, Massachusetts for my fraternity’s 50th Biennial Convocation. If you’re not in my fraternity – or any other fraternity for that matter – this is our organization’s national convention which takes place every other year. For the last three conventions I’ve walked away with a major volunteer award (either the #1 local volunteer in the nation or the #1 regional volunteer in the nation). This year I’m ineligible for those awards since I was elected to a higher level volunteer position that does not have an award associated with it. No biggie – I’ve been extremely busy in the two years since the last convention and that’s the focus of this entry.

Sometimes we can get distracted from the important goals that we are each trying to reach in life. For some folks, those goals are big, grandiose accomplishments like climbing Mount Everest, losing 100 pounds, flying an airplane, etc. For others, those important goals are as seemingly simple as purchasing a new telephone, being sure to attend Church on a weekly basis, showing up to work on time, or even having a job to go to show up to in the morning. The point is that each person has their own objectives that they’re trying to reach.

Recently, I realized that I was becoming more and more distracted by insignificant people, places, and things. These insignificant distractions – on there own – are nothing out of the ordinary. However, combined they put a person in a bad spot where they can’t move forward. Here are some examples of what was distracting me:

• Clients that don’t get it. I’ve mentioned this annoyance before on this blog, but some of my website clients don’t understand what my small business’ role is in their overall internet presence. For example, some of my clients think that it’s perfectly acceptable for me to create a website for them and then – two months later – completely redesign their website because their tastes have changed. These types of clients are clueless and abusive and I’m shedding them from my portfolio. In the grand scheme of things, their inability to make a decision should be – and now, in many cases, is – insignificant in my world.
• Dumb cell phone games. My current and former roommate can tell you that I was nearly addicted to playing BrickBreaker a few months ago. I mean it was crazy! I’d play that stupid game on my cell phone while I was at work, waiting in traffic, sitting trying to watch television, at the restaurant, you name it! I was consumed with scoring 1,000,000+ points (which I did) that I wasted a bunch of time in the process! Talk about something insignificant getting in the way of getting work done!
• Stupid television. This is interesting because I don’t really watch much television other than a few shows that I DVR. Sometimes, I put the television in my bedroom on as background noise while I work on my laptop, but I don’t “watch” whatever is on the screen (typically a news channel like FOX News). In the last week I’ve kept the cable box off more and missing whatever dumb talking heads are on the television certainly could be the very definition of insignificant.

The reason that I emphasized the words cable box in the last point is because I’ve been keeping the television on so I can do some more working out on my Wii Fit. In fact, removing each of the insignificant activities listed above has allowed me to do something else that is more important. Less talking heads = more time working out. Less BrickBreaker = completing more tasks at the office and advancing my work overall. Less whacked out clients = more time to spend on teaching an online course.

Sure, there are a lot of other things that I’ve cut out of my daily routine and by doing so I’ve created more time to focus on the things that matter. However, I’m not going to list them all here because then I might be wasting your time!