In Part 1, we examined three areas of distraction: Business, Individual, and Family. The first step ahead of implementing your solutions is to evaluate your distractions. You may be very organized like me, and if you are, then kudos because that helps you refrain from being distracted.

For others, here is guidance, 3 Keys to Assist with Removing Distractions in Your Business.

Key One – Healthy Habbits

• Establish a healthy morning routine
• Remove physical clutter
• Complete small or difficult projects first
• Turn off smartphone/PC notifications
• Respond to email twice each day (AM/PM)

Let’s look at establishing a healthy morning routine. This will mean something different for each of us.  For me, it starts the night before.   I prepare my business and workout clothes for the next day.  I work out in the morning, and I get my gear ready, so I can jump in and go. 

Create Habits

In the morning, my alarm goes off, I never hit snooze, and I'm up and out within 20 minutes five days a week.  When I return from my workout, I get ready, I’m good to start my day!

If you are like me, your workout is important.  I keep things interesting by doing various activities, including boxing, yoga, HIT workouts, tennis, badminton, weights, spinning, snowboarding, and skiing. 

There are many advantages to working out in the morning when other people are still asleep.  Parking is free, few people want to have a meeting at 6 am, and roads, trails and fitness locations are less crowded. If morning isn't the time you want to workout, then determine when to get it into your day.

Other things that can become part of a healthy morning routine include meditation, journaling, a cold plunge, an ice bath, etc. The key is finding what works to kick-start your day and get you moving.

All these elements must work for you to have a successful morning routine.   It is essential to make your fitness work for you. Not for your spouse, partner, boss, or anyone else. Do it for yourself!   It is the only way you'll keep doing it year after year.

Clutter Cleanup

Remove Physical Clutter is subjective.  It can be as simple as what's on your desk or more complicated when you can’t see the floor of your room, right? Do you have things all over your desk or scattered on the floor?

If you have younger children, you have toys on the floor, there may also be papers, files, and other work-related or personal items.  We want to remove clutter as much as possible. Remember the cheesecake factory menu, so large it is hard to decide. A confused mind does not make decisions. Clutter creates brain confusion.  Remove clutter to make effective decisions and have less to worry about or workaround. 

Get Organized

Complete Small or Difficult Projects First.  This will help get items off your plate.  As human beings, we like to accomplish tasks. You can complete a few small things if you tackle them first. Completing more complicated tasks feels amazing and satisfies our need to complete our checklist.

When I talk about turning off smartphone/PC notifications, people cringe, are horrified by the suggestion, or think I was born in the dark ages.  We don't need our phones every minute of the day.   Even Millennials or Gen Zers need to look up or take a break from their phone now and then.  

When notifications come in, your brain says, "shiny object, shiny object"! because you want to read it. It's human nature. You want to look at it. It distracts you and takes you away from what you're doing.  As a phone or email notification comes in, having your devices on silent or with notifications turned off removes distractions. 

Key Two - Remove Distractions

The Muse.com University of California-Irvine study suggests it takes an average of 23 min 15 sec to get your mind back to the task after a distraction. I am not suggesting you ignore all your notifications.  A great way to remove distractions is to turn off notifications and respond to them between tasks, not during.   You can also set up specifics at a predetermined time, such as checking email twice daily, not immediately when messages come in.   If you're a doctor, surgeon, or rocket scientist, you may need an immediate response.  Yet, most people can wait hours between email responses and even text messages.

The second key Structure can remove distractions by:

• Use A Gatekeeper
• Prioritize Your Work
• Do One Thing at A Time
• Use A Calendar for All Meetings, Tasks, and Bookings

When you use a gatekeeper, you have a buffer between you and others trying to reach you.   A receptionist or virtual assistant can be the first point of contact for an appointment, meeting, or call.  Not everyone needs to reach you first.  Ensure you have someone who can be that buffer for you while you focus on your work.

Prioritizing your work means looking at what is most important in your business.  Ask the question…What do I need to do today, this week, or this month? What's most important?  Are there items that I can complete easily? What are the more critical projects that are going to take more time? 

Avoid multitasking, our brain can only focus on one thing at a time successfully.  I'm not saying that you can't have more than one thing going on at once.  What you want to do is focus on the first task, get that done, then move on to the next, and so on.  If you need to jump between tasks, go from the first task to the second, focus on that, get it done, and go back to the first task.  Jumping back and forth is where the brain gets confused and doesn't let you focus.

Calendar Management

When you use a calendar for all your meetings, tasks, and bookings, it is more effective and will keep you on track. My brother calls me the “Queen of Calendar” and “Queen of Routine.”  I'm not saying to be a robot.  Yet, if you use some of the tools and tips I show you, it will be helpful.

I am giving you a glimpse into my Google calendar.  If you already have Gmail, it is part of the Google Apps offering. (You'll find it in the nine little squares at the top right-hand corner of your Chrome browser). 

On my calendar:

• Appointments/meetings are in red
• Workouts are orange
• General tasks are default blue

The colour code is great because you can look at it on a phone and not have to click to open an item because you understand the colours.  You don't have to have different calendars or keep things in your head, and nothing is missed.

There are those that still prefer a paper calendar. If you're using paper, a tip, get a few highlighters and use colour as well.

Everything goes into my calendar including personal items such as birthdays, doctor/dentist appointments, networking meetings, or a business or pleasure lunch.  Whatever it is, it's all on my calendar and helps with structure and planning to look at everything together.

Items are moveable. When you click on items in the calendar, you can move them.  When something didn't get done, I moved it into another time slot or day.  As you put things on the calendar, you will see where you are fully booked and have run out of time.  Often, we have a list of tasks we want to do in a day. However, there are only 24 hours, and you're not working on all of them.  You can only book the time you have available. Your calendar is a visual representation of your time blocks.

Make sure fun, family, and self-time are all booked too.  If it's not, you will most likely book something else. Book everything in your calendar, even times when you don't want anything booked, and block that off as well to keep it open.

Self-Help

Here are a couple of different things that others have suggested for “structure”. These may work for you too;

"The 4-hour Work Week", a popular self-help book.  It focuses on a promise of, getting to what you want to do now, enjoying life and not waiting till the end of your career.  

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B002WE46UW/

Recently, I was introduced to the "12-week Year".  It breaks your year down into 12-week segments rather than 52 weeks. The goals and accomplishments focus on 90 days.

https://www.amazon.ca/12-Week-Year-Others-Months/dp/1118509234/

Key Three - Wellness

This takes us to the third key, Wellness which you may be surprised to find out also removes distractions.

They tell you to put your mask on first on the airplane, right? If you don't put your mask on first, you're not going to have oxygen to be able to help anyone else.  Putting your mask on first in life is taking care of yourself and making sure you manage your own personal wellness.

Setting up an exercise and nutrition plan is key.  It’s about what you enjoy with physical exercise and food, combining what is good for you.

With your nutrition plan, you need vegetables, protein, micronutrients, and macronutrients, while reducing your bad carbs and sugars.  Consider working with a nutritionist to get on track for what you need concerning food.

Nutrition and consistency are huge and work together.  21 days is approximately what you need to make a change and form a habit*.  Have fun with it so that you enjoy what you’re doing. If you don't, you will not keep up any consistency. You won't have fun, and you won't keep it going.

For the final piece of this trilogy, uncover how to implement these keys in three easy steps in “Discover 3 Keys to Stop Suffering from Squirrel Syndrome In Your Business | Part 3”

Source: https://thebestbizreview.com/the-21-90-rule-can-help-build-good-habits-and-a-lasting-lifestyle-change/

By Michelle Ricketts

Overall, health and fitness always played a part in Michelle’s life and continue to be part of her consulting approach today, differentiating her from others in the industry. Michelle guides business owners to develop a self-sustaining business, generate more revenue, and take back time to do things that excite them!

Raised by a strong, independent single mother, Michelle’s vision and values were instilled early. Michelle’s entrepreneurial journey started in the 90s in event planning and speaking. In addition to Michelle’s over 30-year Corporate career in Media, Logistics and Financial Services, her passions shaped Michelle’s experience, providing innumerable opportunities to give back as a volunteer.

Passionate about making a difference, Michelle is on a philanthropic foundation, “Board of Advisors,” building sustainable schools in developing countries and supporting Digital Samurai’s efforts, an entrepreneur focused on reducing youth unemployment in Africa through apprenticeships.

Michelle’s 35 years as an Account Executive spanned credit card processing and financial services, transportation, logistics, media, and consulting, with many projects including managing consultative alliances, live event management, and sales team leadership. In 2021 Michelle completed Wardell International Advisor training and had recently undertaken S.O.S. Sales Objection System group training with renowned trainer Joe Marcoux. Her career and entrepreneurial ambitions have taken Michelle outside Canada, providing extensive experience in multiple markets in North America and beyond.

You can find Michelle Ricketts on LinkedIn at https://linkedin.com/in/michellericketts