Are you on target or do you keep getting distracted from where you want to be? So how do you stop getting distracted from reaching your goals?
As entrepreneurs, we’re busy people and we have lives going on outside of our businesses – whether it’s friends, family, or maybe even a day job. Oftentimes distractions make it hard to get our mindset geared towards productivity. If you’re looking for ways to stop letting distractions hold you back from reaching your goals, here are five things to try that just might help.
1. Break It Down!
Breaking down larger goals into more realistically achievable steps helps you to understand all the smaller tasks involved in achieving a bigger aim. This will allow you to create a timeline to get things done one by one. By creating a series of realistic mini goals and ticking them off along the way, you can begin to feel a snowballing sense of achievement, inspiring you to work even harder. By creating small, achievable steps you’re able to develop a confident mindset about what you know you can achieve, and no longer will you feel intimidated by the big goals you want to attain.
2. Schedule Your Life
Planning your tasks is an excellent way to avoid getting pulled in all sorts of directions by distractions surrounding you. If you want to get something done, jot it down in your planner or have your online calendar ping at you. When you schedule something it becomes difficult to avoid doing it; you may move it from one week to the next, but eventually you have to deal with actually doing it. But if you find you are still ignoring a task, ask yourself whether it’s really that important and consider deleting it off your list if it’s no longer a priority and doesn’t need to be done at all. There are only 24 hours in a day so when you schedule your time for various tasks make sure you stick to it.
3. Reward Your Good Self
Setting up a reward system for different milestones is a good way to motivate yourself to ignore any distraction and actually get something done. For example, if you finish a report without any distractions, give yourself a reward – anything from a pedicure to a Netflix mini binge, even just a happy twerk around the kitchen might do it. With the promise of a satisfying treat once a project is completed, you will find yourself striving hard to concentrate on accomplishing it so that you can taste a bit of joy when it’s done!
4. Step Away From The Social Media
Social networks like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter help you stay connected with friends and family, but staying too “connected” can end up with distracted and unproductive mindset. A lot of social networks notify you via sms or email every time someone tries to interact with you, making it more difficult to focus on much needed tasks. Actually turning off these reminders may not be as straightforward as we would like, but setting up a way to block off social media notifications is one of the best ways to avoid distractions and boost productivity. There are many tools (apps and browser extensions) available out there that can help stop your social networks from disturbing you. Use them well so you can get your working life back on track.
5. Get Real
Everyone goes through times when they feel pressure to achieve a certain goal. These pressure can challenge or motivate you to do your best. However, unreasonable expectations about what you can achieve in a certain amount of time might be detrimental to your mindset. They can leave a negative impact on your mindset, your emotional state, and ultimately, your productivity. The key is to set challenging but realistic goals – goals you can achieve in a reasonable span of time. This ensures you can finish the first task on your list. And accomplishing even just one task will give you the boost of confidence and the productive mindset you need to work on the next task on your list.
Now it is over to you. In the comments below tell me how do you stay on target to achieving your goals.
