I was a distracted nine-year-old—down the street from my childhood home in Douala, Cameroon, small businesses fought for real estate. The tire shop stacked its spares against the adjacent bodega, both engulfed by the smell of the fish market across the street. It was the perfect place to shop—everything from furniture to groceries was available within a four-block radius.

I often ran shopping errands for my mother, eagerly repeating the list in French three times before heading out, hoping to carve it into my memory:

• pain

• beurre

• chocolat

• farine

On my way to the shops, the foot traffic, bicycles, and cars stirred up clouds of familiar red dust. I walked past a group of classmates playing street soccer and dodged bensikineurs (bike taxis) weaving around pedestrians. After passing all these distractions, I’d arrive at the shops with a pocketful of cash but no idea why I’d gone out. My mother, frustrated with my forgetfulness, began writing my shopping list on my wrists.

Triggers We Can’t Ignore

In The Price of Tardiness, we explored the significance of time awareness in managing life effectively. Similarly, distractions—like tardiness—chip away at our progress, making it crucial to master focus alongside time management. By being intentional with our time and reducing distractions, we can regain control of our day and avoid the regret that comes from wasted opportunities.

How did Benjamin Franklin contribute so much to founding the U.S.A. while maintaining a balanced schedule that included work, leisure, and ample sleep? Though he didn’t have a smartphone, surely faced distractions, yet managed them by structuring his day with intention. Franklin’s approach shows us that a well-rounded routine—including dedicated time for rest and leisure—can result in generational outcomes.

Common stimuli that could interfere with your generational wins include traffic, sirens, doorbells, food smells, cluttered environments, and more. The distractions to watch out for fall into three main categories: visual (e.g., movement, flashing lights), auditory (e.g., noise, conversations), and physical (e.g., someone approaching).

In "External Control of the Stream of Consciousness," Dr. Christina Merrick et al. found that even a simple word, like "lemon," could involuntarily trigger sensory associations, showing participants had minimal control over when these mental associations appeared. Similarly, our professional lives are full of constant stimuli, leading to reflexive actions like reaching for our phones or struggling to focus after a stressful commute. In today’s hyper-stimulated world, even small tasks can feel like accomplishments.

Fight for focus

Let’s discuss how to tend to these distractions.

A first step to tackling highly distracted days is raising our awareness of which habits cause distractions. We can do this by tracking everything we do each hour of the day.

We can do this using paper or a calendar app from Google, Apple, or Microsoft, ending each day by comparing the ideal schedule with the actual day. The goal is not to eliminate distractions entirely but to reduce how long external stimuli involuntarily direct our attention.

Summary of the steps:

1. Define the ideal day—be compassionate yet demanding of yourself.

2. Track each hour of your actual day.

3. Reflect on the gap between your ideal and actual day.

Questions to reflect on when comparing the gap between the ideal and actual day:

1. Which activities on my actual calendar could be eliminated or minimized to help me stay focused?

2. Where did I feel most productive, and what environment or conditions helped me reach that focus?

3.  What specific environments or conditions consistently distracted me, and how might I adjust them to improve focus?

In conclusion, distractions, whether subtle or overwhelming, often pull us away from our ideal day even without us realizing it. By understanding that many distractions are involuntary, we can track our daily activities and compare them to an ideal schedule to highlight which stimuli most involuntarily affected our productivity. Reflecting on our progress lets us gradually close the gap between our reality and our ideal day, ultimately fostering greater concentration and efficiency.

If you found this newsletter helpful, share it with a friend or colleague who could benefit.

References

External control of the stream of consciousness: Stimulus-based effects on involuntary thought sequences
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1053810017305160 

Benjamin Franklin’s Daily Schedule
https://manifestos.mombartz.com/benjamin-franklins-daily-schedule/ 

Baumeister, R. F., & Masicampo, E. J. (2010). Unfulfilled goals interfere with tasks that require executive functions. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology,
https://users.wfu.edu/masicaej/MasicampoBaumeister2011JESP.pdf