Eliminate Distractions and Focus on What Truly Matters - Day 27

Ep. 160 - Eliminate Distractions and Focus on What Truly Matters - Day 27

Episode Description: Feeling scattered? Struggling to focus on what actually moves the needle? It’s time to get ruthless with distractions and reclaim your time. In today’s episode, we’re diving into practical ways to sharpen your focus, eliminate time-wasters, and take aligned action toward your goals. You’ll learn:

✅ How to identify and track your biggest distractions (spoiler: some may surprise you!) ✅ Simple strategies to train your brain for deep focus and productivity ✅ The power of clarity and commitment—and how to keep them front and center

Plus, I’m sharing my go-to techniques like distraction journaling, time-blocking, and the Pomodoro method to help you take control of your time and energy. If you’re ready to stop spinning your wheels and start making real progress, this episode is for you!

🎧 Tune in now and take the first step toward more focus and momentum.

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Transcript

Day 27 - Sharpen Your Focus

Christina: [00:00:00] help to train your brain to stay focused for longer periods of time. Cal Newport, the author of Deep Work, talks about how distractions train our brain for shallow, unfocused thinking, but by intentionally redirecting your focus, you start strengthening your ability to concentrate deeply. 

Welcome to Clear and On Purpose, the podcast designed to help you cut through the noise and get back to what matters most. If you're feeling stuck but need to take intentional action, you're in the right place. I'm Kristina Slaibach, homeschooling mom of two and life and business coach, helping you drop in and align with your values and create more space.

Each week, I'll be sharing practical insights and simple insights. Actual steps to help you find clarity, boost your energy and design a life that balances ambition with. Let's dive in and get clear on purpose.

Christina: [00:01:00] Welcome back to Clear It On Purpose and we're working today on up leveling and sharpening your focus. You've been working towards your goal for almost a month now, so let's check in. Are you making progress or are distractions creeping in? We're getting ruthless about eliminating what's pulling your attention away so you can fully commit to what truly matters.

By now you've had time to work on your goal, reflect, and adjust. So what's getting in your way? What distractions keep popping up, pulling you from what you set out to do? This is your chance to take an honest inventory. One tool that can help is a distraction journal. So here's how it works. So set a timer for focused work.

As you work, keep a notepad open. And every time you get the urge to do something else, check your phone, get up for water, text someone. Write it down instead of acting on it. [00:02:00] At the end of your session, look at your list. What patterns can you find? The goal is to train your brain to stay focused for longer periods of time by reducing these distractions.

So if you continue to use this distraction journal, you'll notice when those urges are coming up. You'll notice what those things are that continually call to you, and you can work to eliminate those distractions. Are you noticing that you're checking or you're having the urge to check your email because you see a notification pop up?

Maybe it's time to block those notifications. Are you constantly being called to check the news? Maybe blocking those sites while you're working would be a good idea. What are the things that are continually pulling you away and what patterns can you notice? And the more times that you just write it down, the to do in your head, the thought that you should do something right now, put those down so you're keeping track of them, your brain can be calm because you're keeping track of them.

But at the same time returning your focus again and again, it's kind of like meditation where you're constantly bringing your mind back [00:03:00] and not following those racing thoughts. So it's training your brain to be able to do that. So if you start this distraction journal process. process, and you continue to do it and gradually increase the time between those distractions, between those times when you are feeling like you need to be doing something else.

It'll help to train your brain to stay focused for longer periods of time. Cal Newport, the author of Deep Work, talks about how distractions train our brain for shallow, unfocused thinking, but by intentionally redirecting your focus, you start strengthening your ability to concentrate deeply. So how can you improve your focus?

Here are some ideas. The Pomodoro Technique. So this is where you work in short, focused sprints. So you set a timer for either 25 minutes of work and 5 minute break, or 50 minutes of work and 10 minute break. It really doesn't matter what the time length is. I've seen people use this in all kinds of ways, but it's setting it for a specific period of [00:04:00] time, and then allowing yourself a short break.

And this is just helping you to be able to commit for that time period because you know that the break is coming up. Time blocking. This is something that can be really helpful for people. I have used it before and found it very helpful. I've also used it and have not been able to keep up with it, but if this is something that works for you, this is an incredible tool.

So this is where you schedule specific time slots for important tasks and you protect them like their appointments.A lot of us will say that we want space in our calendar that we want to havemore open schedules. We don't want to have a bunch of things on top of each other, so we will resist putting those into our calendar.

But the fact is, is that the work is still there, no matter whether we put it on the calendar or not, but it does help us to go through the process of trying to determine. How much work we have available and when we want to do things so time blocking the work periods, and then also time blocking rest periods into that.

So you can have times of things that you want to do, [00:05:00] and then things that you need to do and seeing how much space that those will take, and just taking that process and actually being intentional about your time, whether you stick with the time blocks or not. Even that practice, that's where I found it most helpful, is that intentional look at how many hours I have in the day and then how many hours the things are that I need to be doing and being able to kind of have that mind game of figuring out how those will work together.

And that also allows me to prioritize because I'm not going to be able to get everything done in my list. Re planning. So before opening your laptop or starting work, know exactly what you'll focus on. So this can be as simple as writing down for the next day your top three tasks for the following day and having that available.

Or it can be that before you sit down at work in the morning, you note the first thing that you're going to be working on. If you just open up your laptop and don't really have a plan in place, it can be easy [00:06:00] to get pulled into email, pulled into responding to things, pulled into, searching online.

There are so many things that we can get distracted from doing that we can lose sight and intention of what we actually came there to do. So don't open your laptop without a plan. Organize your space. A cluttered workspace leads to having a constant need to try to find the things that you're looking for.

It creates those distractions. So set yourself up for success by keeping things in order. This is coming from someone who is not great at being able to maintain those clear spaces. So what I need to do is actually set my schedule a weekly reset. And this is my opportunity to go through all the things that might have gotten cluttered on my desk, go through my inbox, and be able to organize all the things that are in there.

And then to also go through my computer and save files, delete things that I don't need,and really be able to just start the next [00:07:00] week with a clear blank slate that's easy for me to get into the next time. And then the last thing is leaving something undone. So if you struggle to start, leave a task slightly unfinished the day before, so you have an easy entry point when you return.

This could be if you're working on writing a book. Write that first sentence of the next chapter before you turn off your laptop. Create that next email draft and just start the first couple of lines on it that you need to send out for that client the next day. Having things where you leave it. When you're already in a state of working that you can just have for you available for that next day can really eliminate that resistance to starting because you already have it started so you can just get into the flow much more quickly.

And if you're struggling with distractions ask yourself do you actually have clarity on what you're working toward? So your why should always be front and center, something that keeps pulling you [00:08:00] forward. And you might want to look at ways to reinforce your clarity, and that can be to create a vision board or keep a motivational quote where you'll see it often, set your screensaver to your goal or a reminder of why you're doing this.

Keep a post on your desk with your highest priority action for the day. Some questions that might come up are how do I stop wasting time on things that don't matter? And this, I feel like, is planning for both your productive time and your rest time. If you have something fun or relaxing to look forward to, you're more motivated to complete your task quickly and efficiently.

What's the best way to focus when I have so many things pulling at my attention? When I start to get into the swirl of all the to dos that I have to do, it's a really great time to do a brain dump. Get everything out on paper, and then sort it. What needs action now, what can wait, what can be delegated, and what can be let go of.

And this also helps with knowing what's most important to focus on right now. So taking those few [00:09:00] minutes, it can seem like when you have a never ending to do list, or you have a bunch of tasks that just feel urgent and important, and you just really need to get going, that you don't have the time to do a brain dump and to plan it out.

But honestly, that can be your best use of time. Because then you're coming at it with intention, you're going to be doing the things that are most important, and you're not going to be simply plowing into the easiest or the most urgent. And you want to look at your main goals. So when you're looking at that list, once you have that brained up, what is your next highest leverage action to move you closer, and prioritize that.

Do that right away. If you can get something done towards your main goal, right away, before you check your emails, before you look at your texts, or before you get into anybody else's priorities and space, having that space for your own priorities is really going to set you up to be able to handle the rest of the day and to really continue to make progress.

So like anything, focus is a skill and it gets stronger with practice. So take time [00:10:00] today to assess your distractions. Choose a focus strategy and commit to making your deep work a priority. You've got this. If this episode resonated with you, share it with someone who might need it too. And don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss the next episode of Clearing On Purpose.

Thank you for tuning in to Clear and On Purpose. If you're ready to take intentional steps toward a more fulfilling life and want to customize the approach, I'd love to work with you. Visit www. christinaslayback. com to schedule a free consultation or explore current offers designed to help you gain clarity and reclaim your energy.

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