My response to the @Indiaunited Contest - Theme: How do you Stay Focused in a World Full of Distractions?
Totally agree, this world is full of distractions and it is so difficult to keep your focus only on the things that matter to you. There are so many external influences and the increasing social media presence in everyone's life makes it all the more difficult. I believe that discipline is the key to keep your focus going.
On the macro level, If we have clear goals in life then that's one way to keep away from distractions. It matters how important those goals are in our life. If they are some very meaningful important goals then it will help stay focused firmly. Distractions come in to picture when one is not clear of what they want to achieve in life. If we start living life loosely then there will be ample opportunities of distractions. Mind will waiver out all the time. But if we clearly know what we want to achieve then we will only work towards that, keeping other things aside. For e.g. if my goal is to have a happy loving family, then no third person will be able to come in to our lives and take away our happiness. Or if I want to get the next promotion in my job, I will be completely committed to whatever I am doing and I will not get distracted to whatever is happening in my surroundings at my work place. If my goal is to make a fortune for myself in life then my focus will be on doing all of that which will help me in building the fortune and I will not be spending my money mindlessly or on things which are not important, I will not be reckless and I will work hard.
On the micro level in day to day life when we are doing our daily jobs there can be distractions, like these days, the mobile phone is the biggest distraction, or that you are doing something important and then you just get into a casual conversation which distracts you. You want to keep going back to your distractions again and again. Even when we are doing something important we keep checking our phones. What I do is, when I am doing any work, I keep the phone in another room so that I do not have it in my hand's reach and then do not feel the need to check it time and again. My phone ringer is on, so if there is any call then I can hear, other wise messages I believe can wait. For people I deal with on the work front, I have informed them that if there is anything they need my attention on, they should call me and not message me.
As such I do not have much of problem keeping my focus on anything that I am doing. I guess regular practice of Meditation helps on that. One must meditate daily and also do some regular exercises on increasing awareness and being in the moment. Even if practiced for 10 to 15 mins daily, it helps overall in the daily life activity.
From my early days of job, I had made this habit. Beginning of the day when I start working, I would make a list of all the things that I need to do, when I was in the job, I would write it down, in order of priority and difficulty. The difficult and tedious ones always on top of the list and then as the day progresses the easy ones. Because at the beginning of the day, the mind is fresh and can focus better. But as time passes by and tiredness sets in, then the easy one can be easily managed. Now also I have the same practice, beginning of the day I finish all important activities, because I know my focus is best in this time and distractions are minimal or not at all. Later part of the day I go easy, and even if there are distractions it does not disturb me much because I am not doing important things.
We do easily get distracted when we are doing some important things, like when we are praying, we sit to pray and only in that time, all the thoughts start gushing in to our minds, in that time only we will think about what we have to cook, what to wear for the next month party or any mindless things which has no relevance in the moment. In that moment, I tell myself that this is not important for now, and it can wait and bring my focus back to my prayer, concentrating on every word of what I am praying.
I guess it's just about training your mind to be in the present and aware of our own actions, that's what helps keep distractions away. If an athlete stops focusing on the game and starts focusing on the cheer of the crowd, he or she is surely going to lose the game. So the key is, focus on your own game. Whether they are at macro or micro level mindfulness helps stay away from distractions.
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