Fighting Distractions

I have been working from home for seven years now. One thing I have constantly battled with is distraction. This has become more of an issue in the past two years than before. For the first five years I worked from home, I was managing software projects for clients.

Though it was my own business, for every project I had someone I had to report to. In fact I did not have one person to report to but had many persons to report to.

Every client of mine was a boss and I had to report to them on their respective projects.

	Ultimately this ‘many bosses’ situation was one of the reasons I quit that business. ‘Many bosses’ situation kind of made me feel that I had gone back to a 9 to 5 job.
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But there was one good thing about this situation though – I was very accountable – I had a project to do – I had someone to report to – And so I stuck to the project outline, finished it and got paid.

For the past two years though I am totally on my own. I have to research and find out niches, create my sites, market and make money from them – all on my own – no one to report to and no one to keep me accountable.

I absolutely love this situation. But the absolute freedom also comes at a price – If I don’t keep a check on myself, I can easily get distracted and go chasing projects that will not help me – Or I can go waste heaps of time in the name of research and education.

In the beginning, I would get easily distracted – But over time I have learned to keep a check on myself. I stick to my daily lists and only when the mandatory tasks of the day are done, I give myself some time to go check other blogs or browse other sites.

Now I am quite strict with myself – no more than 15 minutes of reward time and then it is time to get back to my task list. Again, when some major tasks are done, I reward myself with another 15 minute browsing break.

And as for new projects and shiny objects go, I have a learned a new statement that I ask myself before I get attracted to the next shiny object. And the statement is:

Does this take me closer to my goal or away from my goal.

I have a five year goal list – Not a detailed, step by step list – but a broad list of goals that I need to achieve over the next five years. I strongly recommend that you write down a five year plan/goal list as well – Any new distraction, any new shiny objects, you can always refer to your 5 year list and see if it takes you closer to the list or away from it. If it takes you away from the list, then you stay away from that shiny object.

Fighting distractions is not easy but you have to fight it – Otherwise you will not have much to show for at the end of the day – Get disciplined, set goals, have daily lists and stick to them.

How do you fight your daily distractions – Leave a comment below…

Best,