Out of your head and back to work

How to deal with distractions during deep work time

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is to write down the thoughts you have during
deep work blocks so you can get them out of
your head and get back to work. Today's tip comes

(00:28):
from Eric Fisher, host of the long running podcast Beyond
the to Do List. Eric was recently a guest on
this show. Eric noted how easy it is to be
perpetually distracted with new information coming at us through our
many screens, with thoughts about various topics popping into our minds.

(00:50):
For instance, maybe you've been absorbed in a spreadsheet of
sales data until you realize you need to reschedule a
meeting that falls on yam Kapor, or you have an
idea for a marketing stre for next season. Or you
remember it's your college roommate's birthday. Why that you forgot
to pick up the dry cleaning. You know you were
supposed to be working on the sales data, But what

(01:11):
do you do with the unrelated thoughts during what's supposed
to be focused worktime. Eric advised taking what he called
a meditational approach. When you are meditating, you might acknowledge
the thought you were having and then let it pass. Likewise,
Eric advises, if you are in the middle of working
on something and you have an unrelated thought, acknowledge the

(01:33):
thought by writing it down literally put pencil to paper,
and then let the thought move away. By writing down
the thought, you avoid interrupting your blocked work time to
deal with it. This is time to analyze the sales
data spreadsheet, so you stick with analyzing the sales data.
This is not the time to reschedule the meeting or

(01:55):
call your friend to say happy birthday. I know some
people try to resist unrelated thoughts and push them away,
but then you are at risk of forgetting the thought altogether.
Or if you try to maintain your focus on the
task at hand while remembering the thought for later, you
wind up consuming precious brain space. Clearly, you need to

(02:15):
get the thought out of your head so you can
get back on task. Eric is adamant that you need
to capture these off topic thoughts on paper, and this
does have some upsides. It is simple. You just write
it down on paper that is near you, and unlike
emailing yourself or putting something in a notes app or
in your digital calendar, you won't risk getting pulled away

(02:39):
into other things. As in, you email yourself a note
for later, and then while in your inbox you see
a very exciting email from your manager and next thing
you know, your deep work block of time is gone.
Paper doesn't do this to you. That said, if you

(02:59):
know yourself and know you can email yourself responsibly without
looking at anything else, I think that does work too.
Your choice. Then, when you are done with your original task,
you can process your notes either right then or during
a designated later time. If you emailed yourself and you
process your primary inbox to current, you can deal with

(03:22):
it then. But this process out of your head and
back to work gives you the best of both worlds.
You capture your thought and you don't interrupt your blocked
work time. You maintain your focus and get everything done
in the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and

(03:47):
here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for
listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.

(04:12):
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