November 19, 2025 • 29 mins
We would love to hear from you. Send us a text message now by clicking HERE!
The quiet thief of modern leadership isn’t incompetence or lack of ambition—it’s distraction. We unpack how constant noise steals time, drains vision, and slowly disconnects leaders from the work God actually called them to do. Through scripture, data, and hard-won experience, Harold maps a path from busy to fruitful that any owner, executive, or team lead can follow.
We start with a candid story about setting boundaries that multiplied output, then widen the lens with biblical insight: Mary and Martha on priorities, the sower among thorns on crowded hearts, and the tragic drift of Solomon and Samson. From there, we dig into the hidden drivers that keep leaders scattered—dopamine chasing, fear of missing out, fuzzy goals, people-pleasing identities, missing systems, guilt-fueled workaholism, and ego. You’ll see the modern culprits clearly: email overload, social media loops, surprise meetings, notifications, perfectionism, firefighting, and endless news cycles that masquerade as “staying informed.”
Clarity turns the tide. We outline a simple, durable framework: name your distractions with a short audit, get order with time blocking and the 80-20 rule, concentrate with single-task focus, and unplug to kill noise at the source. You’ll get a sample daily template, practical tips like limiting email checks, turning off nonessential notifications, and delegating fire drills to the right people. We also lean into “eat the frog” to remove the dread that makes distractions seductive, and we reclaim stillness so leaders can think, pray, and decide with intention.
If you’re ready to trade frantic activity for meaningful progress—and align your business with godly success—this conversation gives you the tools and the courage to do it. Subscribe, share with a leader who needs focus today, and leave a review to help more people find the show.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Welcome to the Christian business concepts with
your host here.
Christian business conceptscompany successfully company
successfully company with yourhost here.
SPEAKER_01 (00:18):
Thanks, Kelly, and welcome to all of you who have
decided to download this week'sChristian Business Concepts
Podcast.
I'm your host, Harold Milby, andI've been working with uh
Christian and non-Christianbusinesses alike um for over 30
years.
And the reason that I startedChristian Business Concepts was
to help Christian businessowners and leaders find true
(00:41):
godly success, which shouldnever be confused with the
world's success.
They're very different.
Uh and uh you now, everythingI've learned about leadership
principles, I have learned fromthe Bible.
And the Bible's also full ofbusiness principles.
You know, each week we discussbusiness principles and we apply
(01:02):
those biblical teachings and weapply that wisdom so we can
bring glory to God.
That's first and foremost, uh,in our businesses and our
careers and our personal lives.
So today I hope uh this podcastwill encourage you, enlighten
you, and empower you to be allthat God has created you to be
(01:25):
as a Christian business leaderor a Christian business owner.
Now, I'm gonna ask you to pleasehelp us continue to grow the CBC
family by sharing this podcastuh with um uh you know with four
or five other people, and besure to put the link to this
podcast in a in a post to youruh on your Facebook or your
(01:48):
LinkedIn page.
That that would be that wouldjust be wonderful.
Now, this week I want to give abig shout out uh to the city of
Lakeville, Minnesota, here inthe United States.
Uh they are new listeners andthey have downloaded a lot of
episodes this week.
And uh we just really appreciateyou folks there in Lakeville,
(02:10):
Minnesota.
We appreciate all of you whodownload, and many of you
download every single episodeevery week, and we appreciate
that, and we hope that we canearn that trust that you have in
us to help you grow as a leaderand as a person.
Now, today I want to talk aboutsomething that I think affects
(02:32):
about 95% of all businessleaders.
I I want to say probably allleaders in general.
Uh, it's something that stealstime, talent, uh, and treasure
from your calling.
And make no mistake, you arecalled.
And today I want to discuss withyou how this topic, which is
(02:55):
distractions, are the silentkiller, I think, of businesses,
business leaders, of vision uhthat leaders have.
You know, when I when I was apastor, I remember the first
time this became a serious issuefor me.
I was at my second church, andwe had doubled in size several
times uh over the course ofabout 18 months.
(03:18):
And the biggest contributingfactor was I was a
people-oriented person.
I'm talking about contributingfactor to to these uh
distractions.
Uh, but I'm a people-orientedperson and I'm unstructured.
Now there's four types ofpeople.
There's there's um uhpeople-oriented that are
(03:40):
structured, and thenpeople-oriented that are
unstructured, like myself.
And then there is umtask-oriented people and
structured and task-orientedpeople that are unstructured.
So for me, I had thiscombination of being
unstructured and beingpeople-oriented.
And so I could be studying for asermon, I could be working on
(04:03):
something, working on the visionof the church, any number of
things I could be working on.
But if somebody came into theouter office, which is where my
secretary was, that was heroffice, right outside mine.
Uh, I would hear somebody comein and start talking.
I would immediately get up.
I want to go see who it is, Iwant to talk to them, see how
they're doing, and I might spend20 minutes to 45 minutes talking
(04:25):
to that person.
And then I would go back into myoffice, but it would take me 30
to 40 minutes to kind of getback on track and pick up where
I left off.
And finally, one day mysecretary came into my office
and she asked if she could dosomething to help me.
She said, I want to do somethingfor you.
She said, I want to keep yourdoor closed and you don't come
out unless I come and knock onthe door.
(04:47):
No matter what person you hearout here, I want you to stay in
your office.
So I began to give her somedirection as to how I wanted
things screened and peoplescreened.
And then we implemented herplan.
And honestly, it was awesome.
I was really surprised at howmuch I could get done in a day
when I wasn't allowing myself toget up every time I heard
(05:10):
somebody.
And uh then I also realized howmany people were distracting,
uh, you know, distracting meduring the day.
You know, when you look at theBible, you look at Luke chapter
10, you know, verses 38 through52, that's the story of Mary and
Martha.
And Mary and Martha were uh attheir home, and Jesus came to
their home, and uh Martha was inthe kitchen and she was working
(05:34):
and she was cleaning, and butMary was sitting at the feet of
Jesus listening to him teach.
And Martha came in and said,Jesus, do you don't you care
that Mary's left me alone to getall this work done?
And uh Jesus said, Martha,you've you're distracted by a
great many things.
And Mary has chosen that thingthat is the best.
(05:57):
And so he he was talking aboutpriorities, but he was also
talking about distractions.
And so that's a great example ofdistractions.
Matthew 13, 22 talks about thesower of the seed, and it and it
says this it says, the seedfalling among the thorns refers
to someone who hears the word,but the worries of this life and
the deceitfulness of wealthchoke the word, making it
(06:20):
unfruitful.
So again, we're talking aboutdistractions.
You know, you can be distractedby by the by the world's wealth
or or or by um uh you know whatgoes on during life.
You know, we can get distractedby that.
Solomon in the Old Testament,King Solomon, uh, great king,
one of the wisest men on the onthe planet at the time.
(06:42):
And he was distracted by foreignand ungodly wives.
And so instead of marrying thesegodly uh Israelite women, he
would minute, he would, he wouldmarry these foreign wives, these
foreign women who were justcompletely ungodly and also
worshipped idols.
You know, Samson, anotherexample, he became distracted uh
(07:07):
by Delilah, and he allowedhimself to be distracted by her.
The children of Israel weredistracted by the past and what
it was like in Egypt when thingsgot really hard.
They wanted to go back to Egypt.
They got distracted.
They also got distracted whenthey got to the edge of the
promised land, and they sent inthe 12 spies to spy out the
land.
Two came back with a really goodreport, and the ten got
(07:29):
distracted by the giants, theten got distracted by all the
other things.
They both saw, or all 12 saw thesame thing, but only two did not
allow themselves to getdistracted by those things.
And and in a uh Forbes onlinemagazine article recently, it's
uh entitled An Epidemic ofDistraction: How Focus Leaders
(07:52):
Create Momentum.
And the author's name was uh uhGene Stafford.
Uh and and according to uh her,there's some studies out there
that found that 79% of U.S.
workers admitted that they couldnot go a full hour without being
distracted.
And 59% couldn't even sustainfocus for 30 minutes within that
(08:15):
hour.
There's another study that foundthat that knowledge workers lose
roughly 28% of their time todistractions.
And so that's that's about 581hours per employee per year.
So distractions have become areally problem issue within many
(08:37):
organizations with leaders.
And uh, so let's let's talkbriefly about why leaders let
distractions steal their timeand take away from them.
Uh there are several rootcauses.
Uh, number one is what we call adopamine addiction, it's the
quick hit trap.
In other words, people arelooking to get things done
(08:59):
quickly and easily because theyhit the they get this sense of
accomplishment when they dosomething that's completed and
it creates dopamine uh withinour bodies.
And it's like it's like a high,it's like a natural high.
Uh so you know, this the Harvardstudy says that 40% of the
(09:20):
waking hours spent uh in a in awork day can the mind can wander
47% of that time.
So, you know, a dopamineaddiction is one.
Another is the fear of missingout.
We're afraid of missing out.
That was my problem.
You know, the reason I want toget up and go see somebody and
see who it was was because I wasafraid I was gonna miss
(09:43):
something.
And so a fear of missing out isanother.
Another is a lack of clarity.
If you don't really have aclear, what we'd call North Star
or a clear number one goal, theneverything feels urgent when not
everything is urgent.
And so you you've got to havethis.
You know, leaders with writtengoals are 42% more likely to
(10:08):
achieve the things that theywant to achieve just because
they have goals.
So it's important that you haveclarity.
Another is people-pleasingidentity.
In other words, I'm the hero whofixes everything.
Uh, you know, they want theywant to please everybody.
And uh so that's a that'sanother reason.
Another is they don't have anysystems.
(10:28):
They have no SOPs, they havethey just don't have any system
to get things done.
So everything is you're easilydistracted uh when you don't
have any kind of a system.
Another is guilt andworkaholism.
So, you know, people areworkaholics, they they feel
guilty if they're not doingenough.
And I struggle with that myselfsometimes.
(10:50):
I feel like, well, I'm not doingenough.
I'm not doing enough, and Ireally kind of give myself a
hard time, and uh it causes meto easily get distracted.
Um, you know, in other words, ifI'm not busy, I'm failing.
I I'm trying to strike the wordbusy out of my vocabulary.
I don't want when people say,How are you?
What's going on?
(11:10):
I don't want to say I'm busy.
Because just because you're busydoesn't mean you're productive.
A lot of people are busy, butthey're they're not very
productive.
And so, you know, I I reallywant to make sure that I don't
allow guilt or that workaholic,you know, lifestyle uh make sure
it doesn't get a hold of me.
(11:30):
And and then the last one isego, ego and control.
In other words, well, nobody cando it as well as I can.
Well, there's a lot of thingslike that that may be true that
you can't do, nobody can do aswell as you do, but that doesn't
mean that you need to do them.
You need to give somebody else achance to learn to not only do
(11:50):
it as good as you, but maybe doit better than what you do.
And so we we have to watch thatego and that control because it
can lead to a lot ofdistractions.
Uh so let's look at some of thetop what I would consider to be
modern day distractions.
Um, number one is emailoverload.
(12:11):
Email overload.
According to some studies, thatalone costs employers$50,000 a
year in lost focus.
$50,000 a year.
Uh another big one.
And on average, the email islike 13 hours a week that's
lost.
Social media, that's anotherone.
(12:33):
That's about nine hours a weekthat's lost.
And then you have unplannedmeetings, meetings that you have
that pop up that are notplanned, and they interrupt your
day.
And so now sometimes that can'tbe helped, and I understand
that.
Uh, especially if you're abusiness leader but you're not
(12:53):
the owner.
Sometimes the owner will causeyou to have to drop everything
and go into a meeting.
So I'm not talking about that,but I'm just talking about
things that you do have controlover.
Uh, another distraction is againjust trying to please people.
Uh, there's another one.
I call it the shiny objectsyndrome.
(13:14):
In other words, you you just seesomething, it's interesting, and
then you just it takes yourfocus and it takes your
attention.
It's just the new shiny object.
Uh phone notifications.
Uh I turn uh I have very fewphone notifications on my phone.
Very few.
(13:35):
I used to take notifications forevery app, for every single
thing on my phone.
It is such a distraction.
So I turned off all mynotifications.
There's only like one, I think,and it's for the weather, it's
for emergency weather.
That's the only notificationthat I have.
Um, another is perfectionism.
And I say this all the timeperfection is the enemy of
(13:58):
accomplishment.
Perfection is the enemy ofmoving forward because you're
waiting until everything isperfect before that you move
forward.
So you have to look at that.
Another is uh what we'd callteam firefighting.
So you want to get involved inputting out all the fires.
And if you have a team ofpeople, you need to train those
(14:22):
people to be the firefighters.
You don't need to be thefirefighter for everything that
goes on in your business or inyour department, in your
company.
Uh, and then the other is news.
People scroll down, they'relooking at news all the time.
And I got to tell you, theiPhone and other smart devices,
not just that brand, but anykind of smart device that you
(14:45):
utilize, it is such adistraction because news comes
so easily on these devices.
Whatever, however, you want toget your news, you can get it
right there on your phone.
It is so easy to get.
And that becomes a distractioneven for me at times.
Uh, so that's something, and andwhen we're talking about
distractions, I I fight thisevery day just like you do.
(15:07):
So I'm I'm I'm just saying thatwe have to be very smart and
very purposeful on how we dealwith distractions.
Uh, and then another is personalerrands.
Now that's not a big deal, butit can be if you let it get out
of hand.
So you have to watch that.
So personal errands.
So, you know, distractions tome, they fall into one of these
(15:30):
following categories.
It's either digital noise,because distraction to me is
noise.
And so it's digital noise, youknow, social media, email,
that's digital.
There's people noise, so that'speople coming in, interrupting,
doing the things that that youknow that are just taking time
(15:51):
away, taking your focus off whatyou were working on.
Uh, so there's people noise,there's internal noise, and
that's you, that's internally inyou.
And then there's material noise.
There's just physical thingsthat take and break your focus,
uh, no matter what it may be.
I I work a lot in my homeoffice.
(16:12):
I have a small dog.
He wants to be in my office andhe wants to be in my lap.
And it's like, dude, you youcan't I can't work when you're
in here running around, you'repestering me.
And I love my dog, but you knowwhat?
He's a he's a distraction.
Uh so you know, whatever thosethings are, you know, the
whatever those those things canbe, that noise that's
(16:35):
distracting you, you know, itjust it's a noise that draws our
attention away, it draws ourfocus away, it draws our time,
takes our time.
So what I'm saying is stopfeeding the noise.
Stop feeding the noise.
So anyway, we look at why dostra distractions win.
(16:57):
Why why do they win?
Well, distractions areimmediate.
And when you look at somethingand you're working towards your
purpose, your purpose is kind ofdistant.
It's far off.
You're trying to work towards agoal.
You know, the Bible says in 1John 2 16, it says the desires
of the flesh and the desires ofthe eyes.
He talks about the fact thatthese things are immediate
(17:20):
pleasures.
And the immediate pleasures aretypically the things that
distract us the most.
So that's a reason whydistractions win sometimes.
You know, your brain is wiredfor instant gratification.
You know, so a notification oran email or a social media ping,
it just delivers this dopaminebecause it gets it gets
(17:43):
something right now.
It it's it's instantgratification.
And uh, you know, the Bible saysset your minds on things above
and not on earthly things.
Again, just trying to stayfocused.
Another is distractions areeasy.
Typically, distractions areeasy, but if you're disciplined,
that at times is hard.
(18:04):
It's hard.
You're looking far off, and yetthere's something real easy
right here, and so that becomesa distraction.
Uh and the Bible says Proverbs12, 15, it says, the way of a
fool seems right unto him.
And uh so that's a that's that'sanother one.
It's because they're easy.
Um you know, I I I wouldencourage you to practice this
(18:28):
two-minute rule.
In other words, if a task takesless than two minutes, then do
it now.
If it takes less than twominutes, do it now.
And and this kind of kills themicro procrastination, right?
Um another thing is distractionsare loud, like I said, it
creates noise.
(18:48):
Now, it may not be physicalnoise, but it may just be
something that rattles in yourmind so much that you have to
deal with it.
But the Bible says in Psalms 46and 10, he says, Be still and
know that I am God.
Don't let the noise ofdistraction uh take and dominate
your life and interrupt you.
(19:10):
And you know, when you look atnews and and and notifications,
they're they're just noise.
It's just noise.
And God talks about stillness,but we rarely create that space
to listen.
And that's what you have to do.
You've got to protect yourspace.
You know, the Bible says theLord will fight for you.
(19:30):
You need only to bestill, bestill.
That's in Exodus 14, 14.
So again, it's important.
You know, uh maybe you just take10 minutes a day to just be
silent.
No phone, no noise, just pray,just listen, journal.
You know, I think those areimportant things.
And distractions are endless.
(19:50):
That's another thing.
They're endless, they're they'realways there.
There's distractions every dayif you allow them.
There are every day.
And and your time is verylimited.
You know, Psalms 90 and 12 says,Teach us the number of our days.
You know, so the internet, theinternet is infinite, but your
(20:11):
day is not.
And without boundaries, thesedistractions are going to
consume your most preciousresource, which is time.
You know.
Ephesians 5 16 says, Redeem thetime because the days are evil.
It's important.
Uh so what you want to do is inthose situations is you want to
(20:33):
um, you know, what you want todo is is take and um block your
time on your calendar.
Block time for specific things,and then you don't let those
things enter, don't let anythingelse interrupt that block of
time.
If you write, if you're awriter, then you block time.
You know, if you I want to writean hour a day, okay, block that
(20:54):
time.
What time are you gonna write?
Between seven and eight, ormaybe your best time is between
nine and ten, whatever it is,block your time and don't let
anything interrupt that time.
So you need to begin to writedown as we look at this
four-phase solution uh fordealing with distractions.
(21:15):
The first phase is you gottaname your distractions.
What are they?
Look and find out what they are.
You know, do uh distractionaudit, okay?
Uh journal those.
Put it put a journal down orwrite or get a journal and then
start writing down what theyare.
Look at what your top threetriggers are.
(21:35):
What is your top three triggers?
Maybe it's a sticky notesomebody puts on your desk.
Okay, well then don't letanybody put sticky notes on your
desk.
But what I'm saying is thatbegin to name your distractions.
You know, you need to focus onthis hit list so that you can
start to eliminate um thesedistractions.
(21:56):
So that's that's the first thingthat you need to do.
Uh the next thing that you needto do is you need to get some
order.
Okay.
Again, we talked about blockingtime.
Uh you know, Jesus blocked histime.
If you really look at it, whathe did, he he took time away.
He got away by himself.
(22:16):
And uh so he he blocked time.
He understood what wasimportant, he understood what
wasn't as important.
And you yourself, you canpractice that 80-20 rule, that
that that Pareto principle thatsays 80% of your results come
from 20% of your tasks.
So if you want to look at like acalendar, uh here's an idea for
(22:39):
a template for you.
So, like, for example, you know,and again, these are just
examples.
You you come up with ityourself, but say from 6 to 8
a.m., that's your deep work.
That's that's your revenue task.
That's what's going to make youmoney.
That's from 6 to 8.
Then from 8 to noon, maybe youhave team uh meetings or just
you know, meetings that you needto have.
(23:00):
Do that from 8 to 12.
And then from 1 to 3, do somedeep work again.
But maybe this is more involvingstrategy, looking at strategies.
And then from 3 to 5, do youradmin, do some of your emails.
Uh, do that maybe, maybe for 30minutes at a time.
Do it a couple of times.
(23:20):
Uh, you know, and I'll be honestwith you, I don't that very
seldom do I get an email thatcan't wait 45 uh uh 48 hours to
respond to.
Now I try not to do that.
I want to be professional, butto be honest, I mean, there's a
lot of stuff that comes acrossmy emails.
It's like I could wait for a dayor two to answer that.
So what I'm trying to tell youabout emails, don't live in your
(23:42):
emails.
I check my emails two to threetimes a day and that's it.
I wouldn't check them more thanthat.
You know, that's every that'sjust every few hours.
If you check them three times aday and you work nine hours, uh,
you know, you're checking youremails every three hours.
Folks, unless you're thepresident of the United States,
I don't think you have anythingthat pressing that you have to
(24:04):
to get right on.
So then the next phase is youneed to concentrate.
Concentrate on a single task.
Let me tell you something.
Multitasking is overrated.
I'm just telling you that.
You know, it's just overrated.
You know, you don't want tomultitask.
I tell you what, there's times Itake my phone, I put it in the
(24:26):
desk drawer.
I turn the ringer off and I justput it in the drawer, just as if
I don't even have a phone.
Because that's the other thing.
Most of my phone calls, they'renot that urgent that I have to
know about it right now.
And if they can't get a hold ofme by phone, they'll get a hold
of me by email.
You know, and so I I just Ithink you have to really watch
and concentrate on a singletask.
(24:47):
You gotta be like a sniper, yougotta be laser focused, one
thing at a time.
You know, uh Bruce Lee said, themartial artist, he said, the
successful warrior is theaverage man with laser-like
focus.
I think that is powerful.
You know, Paul says inPhilippians 3 13, he says, This
(25:10):
one thing I do, I press towardsthe mark of the prize of the
high calling.
And so he's focused on onething.
Again, you know, let'sconcentrate.
If you're gonna keep from beingdistracted, concentrate.
And then phase four, you gottaunplug, you gotta kill the
noise.
What whatever it is, you gottakill the noise.
(25:32):
Um, you know, your your inbox,let me say this your inbox and
your email, that's not yourto-do list.
Don't confuse those two.
Your email inbox is not yourto-do list.
Don't confuse it.
And let me say this busy isn'tproductive.
Again, I think I said thatearlier.
But being busy doesn't meanyou're being productive, but
(25:54):
being focused is.
Uh so you know, you look at youremails, like I said, you look at
them maybe at 10 a.m.
and look at them at 3 p.m.
Um, you know, I would encourageyou even now that for social
media, don't do any social mediafor 30 days.
Try to wean yourself on it.
You know, just try to try to tryto wean yourself away from that,
(26:20):
right?
And then, you know, the Biblesays in Matthew 6, 33, it says,
but seek ye first his kingdomand his righteousness, and all
these things will be given toyou as well.
So, you know, do the hard thingsfirst.
It's called it's called the eatthe frog principle.
You know, if you've got somethings you're dreading to do,
(26:43):
get those knocked out.
Because I'll tell you why.
When the hard things are infront of you, you are more um
you you will more than likelyallow distractions uh to enter
into your day because you reallydon't want to do those things.
Those are the hard things.
And so you allow thedistractions to come in.
(27:04):
You welcome them almost.
So get the hard things done, getthem out of the way.
And then that way thedistractions don't mean as much,
they don't help you as much,they don't provide as much for
you.
So it's like the eat the frogprinciple.
You do the most dreaded taskfirst, and it really eliminates
the mental drag of avoidance.
(27:25):
You know, uh Jesus teaches us toprioritize the kingdom first.
And in business, that meanstackling the task that aligns
with your calling even when it'shard.
And that's that's what you haveto do.
You you just have to tackle thehard things first and uh and
look at that.
You know, distractions are notalways seen as distractions, but
(27:47):
as we've discussed theseprinciples today, I hope that
you've recognized the potentialdestructive power that these
distractions can have.
And I'm confident that each ofyou um will begin to deal with
distractions and see them forwhat they are.
So, Lord, we come before youright now, Lord, and I thank you
(28:09):
for each and everyone who haslistened to this podcast today.
Lord, please help us torecognize distractions and
overcome them with your word.
And Lord, help us to focus onyou and then focus on those
things, the important thingsthat will bring true godly
(28:30):
success in our business, uh inour careers, in our families,
and in our personal life.
And Lord, we thank you for that,and we give you glory and honor
for it in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Well, thank you again, each andevery one of you, for being a
part of Christian BusinessConcepts Podcast.
(28:51):
And we hope that this has been ablessing to you.
If it has, please share it withtwo or three or four other
people.
And again, be sure to post alink uh on your your uh as a
post uh in your LinkedIn and andin uh your Facebook pages.
That would be a big help andthat would be a big blessing to
us.
Well, thank thank you again forbeing a part and allowing us to
(29:14):
be a part of your personalgrowth plan.
I I really appreciate it.
So until next time, remember,Jesus is Lord and He wants you
blessed.
SPEAKER_00 (29:32):
Thank you for tuning into this week's Christian
business concept podcast.
Go to Christian business conceptfrom Christianity podcast, your
business.
Welcome to the Christian business concepts with
your host here.
Christian business conceptscompany successfully company
successfully company with yourhost here.
SPEAKER_01 (00:18):
Thanks, Kelly, and welcome to all of you who have
decided to download this week'sChristian Business Concepts
Podcast.
I'm your host, Harold Milby, andI've been working with uh
Christian and non-Christianbusinesses alike um for over 30
years.
And the reason that I startedChristian Business Concepts was
to help Christian businessowners and leaders find true
(00:41):
godly success, which shouldnever be confused with the
world's success.
They're very different.
Uh and uh you now, everythingI've learned about leadership
principles, I have learned fromthe Bible.
And the Bible's also full ofbusiness principles.
You know, each week we discussbusiness principles and we apply
(01:02):
those biblical teachings and weapply that wisdom so we can
bring glory to God.
That's first and foremost, uh,in our businesses and our
careers and our personal lives.
So today I hope uh this podcastwill encourage you, enlighten
you, and empower you to be allthat God has created you to be
(01:25):
as a Christian business leaderor a Christian business owner.
Now, I'm gonna ask you to pleasehelp us continue to grow the CBC
family by sharing this podcastuh with um uh you know with four
or five other people, and besure to put the link to this
podcast in a in a post to youruh on your Facebook or your
(01:48):
LinkedIn page.
That that would be that wouldjust be wonderful.
Now, this week I want to give abig shout out uh to the city of
Lakeville, Minnesota, here inthe United States.
Uh they are new listeners andthey have downloaded a lot of
episodes this week.
And uh we just really appreciateyou folks there in Lakeville,
(02:10):
Minnesota.
We appreciate all of you whodownload, and many of you
download every single episodeevery week, and we appreciate
that, and we hope that we canearn that trust that you have in
us to help you grow as a leaderand as a person.
Now, today I want to talk aboutsomething that I think affects
(02:32):
about 95% of all businessleaders.
I I want to say probably allleaders in general.
Uh, it's something that stealstime, talent, uh, and treasure
from your calling.
And make no mistake, you arecalled.
And today I want to discuss withyou how this topic, which is
(02:55):
distractions, are the silentkiller, I think, of businesses,
business leaders, of vision uhthat leaders have.
You know, when I when I was apastor, I remember the first
time this became a serious issuefor me.
I was at my second church, andwe had doubled in size several
times uh over the course ofabout 18 months.
(03:18):
And the biggest contributingfactor was I was a
people-oriented person.
I'm talking about contributingfactor to to these uh
distractions.
Uh, but I'm a people-orientedperson and I'm unstructured.
Now there's four types ofpeople.
There's there's um uhpeople-oriented that are
(03:40):
structured, and thenpeople-oriented that are
unstructured, like myself.
And then there is umtask-oriented people and
structured and task-orientedpeople that are unstructured.
So for me, I had thiscombination of being
unstructured and beingpeople-oriented.
And so I could be studying for asermon, I could be working on
(04:03):
something, working on the visionof the church, any number of
things I could be working on.
But if somebody came into theouter office, which is where my
secretary was, that was heroffice, right outside mine.
Uh, I would hear somebody comein and start talking.
I would immediately get up.
I want to go see who it is, Iwant to talk to them, see how
they're doing, and I might spend20 minutes to 45 minutes talking
(04:25):
to that person.
And then I would go back into myoffice, but it would take me 30
to 40 minutes to kind of getback on track and pick up where
I left off.
And finally, one day mysecretary came into my office
and she asked if she could dosomething to help me.
She said, I want to do somethingfor you.
She said, I want to keep yourdoor closed and you don't come
out unless I come and knock onthe door.
(04:47):
No matter what person you hearout here, I want you to stay in
your office.
So I began to give her somedirection as to how I wanted
things screened and peoplescreened.
And then we implemented herplan.
And honestly, it was awesome.
I was really surprised at howmuch I could get done in a day
when I wasn't allowing myself toget up every time I heard
(05:10):
somebody.
And uh then I also realized howmany people were distracting,
uh, you know, distracting meduring the day.
You know, when you look at theBible, you look at Luke chapter
10, you know, verses 38 through52, that's the story of Mary and
Martha.
And Mary and Martha were uh attheir home, and Jesus came to
their home, and uh Martha was inthe kitchen and she was working
(05:34):
and she was cleaning, and butMary was sitting at the feet of
Jesus listening to him teach.
And Martha came in and said,Jesus, do you don't you care
that Mary's left me alone to getall this work done?
And uh Jesus said, Martha,you've you're distracted by a
great many things.
And Mary has chosen that thingthat is the best.
(05:57):
And so he he was talking aboutpriorities, but he was also
talking about distractions.
And so that's a great example ofdistractions.
Matthew 13, 22 talks about thesower of the seed, and it and it
says this it says, the seedfalling among the thorns refers
to someone who hears the word,but the worries of this life and
the deceitfulness of wealthchoke the word, making it
(06:20):
unfruitful.
So again, we're talking aboutdistractions.
You know, you can be distractedby by the by the world's wealth
or or or by um uh you know whatgoes on during life.
You know, we can get distractedby that.
Solomon in the Old Testament,King Solomon, uh, great king,
one of the wisest men on the onthe planet at the time.
(06:42):
And he was distracted by foreignand ungodly wives.
And so instead of marrying thesegodly uh Israelite women, he
would minute, he would, he wouldmarry these foreign wives, these
foreign women who were justcompletely ungodly and also
worshipped idols.
You know, Samson, anotherexample, he became distracted uh
(07:07):
by Delilah, and he allowedhimself to be distracted by her.
The children of Israel weredistracted by the past and what
it was like in Egypt when thingsgot really hard.
They wanted to go back to Egypt.
They got distracted.
They also got distracted whenthey got to the edge of the
promised land, and they sent inthe 12 spies to spy out the
land.
Two came back with a really goodreport, and the ten got
(07:29):
distracted by the giants, theten got distracted by all the
other things.
They both saw, or all 12 saw thesame thing, but only two did not
allow themselves to getdistracted by those things.
And and in a uh Forbes onlinemagazine article recently, it's
uh entitled An Epidemic ofDistraction: How Focus Leaders
(07:52):
Create Momentum.
And the author's name was uh uhGene Stafford.
Uh and and according to uh her,there's some studies out there
that found that 79% of U.S.
workers admitted that they couldnot go a full hour without being
distracted.
And 59% couldn't even sustainfocus for 30 minutes within that
(08:15):
hour.
There's another study that foundthat that knowledge workers lose
roughly 28% of their time todistractions.
And so that's that's about 581hours per employee per year.
So distractions have become areally problem issue within many
(08:37):
organizations with leaders.
And uh, so let's let's talkbriefly about why leaders let
distractions steal their timeand take away from them.
Uh there are several rootcauses.
Uh, number one is what we call adopamine addiction, it's the
quick hit trap.
In other words, people arelooking to get things done
(08:59):
quickly and easily because theyhit the they get this sense of
accomplishment when they dosomething that's completed and
it creates dopamine uh withinour bodies.
And it's like it's like a high,it's like a natural high.
Uh so you know, this the Harvardstudy says that 40% of the
(09:20):
waking hours spent uh in a in awork day can the mind can wander
47% of that time.
So, you know, a dopamineaddiction is one.
Another is the fear of missingout.
We're afraid of missing out.
That was my problem.
You know, the reason I want toget up and go see somebody and
see who it was was because I wasafraid I was gonna miss
(09:43):
something.
And so a fear of missing out isanother.
Another is a lack of clarity.
If you don't really have aclear, what we'd call North Star
or a clear number one goal, theneverything feels urgent when not
everything is urgent.
And so you you've got to havethis.
You know, leaders with writtengoals are 42% more likely to
(10:08):
achieve the things that theywant to achieve just because
they have goals.
So it's important that you haveclarity.
Another is people-pleasingidentity.
In other words, I'm the hero whofixes everything.
Uh, you know, they want theywant to please everybody.
And uh so that's a that'sanother reason.
Another is they don't have anysystems.
(10:28):
They have no SOPs, they havethey just don't have any system
to get things done.
So everything is you're easilydistracted uh when you don't
have any kind of a system.
Another is guilt andworkaholism.
So, you know, people areworkaholics, they they feel
guilty if they're not doingenough.
And I struggle with that myselfsometimes.
(10:50):
I feel like, well, I'm not doingenough.
I'm not doing enough, and Ireally kind of give myself a
hard time, and uh it causes meto easily get distracted.
Um, you know, in other words, ifI'm not busy, I'm failing.
I I'm trying to strike the wordbusy out of my vocabulary.
I don't want when people say,How are you?
What's going on?
(11:10):
I don't want to say I'm busy.
Because just because you're busydoesn't mean you're productive.
A lot of people are busy, butthey're they're not very
productive.
And so, you know, I I reallywant to make sure that I don't
allow guilt or that workaholic,you know, lifestyle uh make sure
it doesn't get a hold of me.
(11:30):
And and then the last one isego, ego and control.
In other words, well, nobody cando it as well as I can.
Well, there's a lot of thingslike that that may be true that
you can't do, nobody can do aswell as you do, but that doesn't
mean that you need to do them.
You need to give somebody else achance to learn to not only do
(11:50):
it as good as you, but maybe doit better than what you do.
And so we we have to watch thatego and that control because it
can lead to a lot ofdistractions.
Uh so let's look at some of thetop what I would consider to be
modern day distractions.
Um, number one is emailoverload.
(12:11):
Email overload.
According to some studies, thatalone costs employers$50,000 a
year in lost focus.
$50,000 a year.
Uh another big one.
And on average, the email islike 13 hours a week that's
lost.
Social media, that's anotherone.
(12:33):
That's about nine hours a weekthat's lost.
And then you have unplannedmeetings, meetings that you have
that pop up that are notplanned, and they interrupt your
day.
And so now sometimes that can'tbe helped, and I understand
that.
Uh, especially if you're abusiness leader but you're not
(12:53):
the owner.
Sometimes the owner will causeyou to have to drop everything
and go into a meeting.
So I'm not talking about that,but I'm just talking about
things that you do have controlover.
Uh, another distraction is againjust trying to please people.
Uh, there's another one.
I call it the shiny objectsyndrome.
(13:14):
In other words, you you just seesomething, it's interesting, and
then you just it takes yourfocus and it takes your
attention.
It's just the new shiny object.
Uh phone notifications.
Uh I turn uh I have very fewphone notifications on my phone.
Very few.
(13:35):
I used to take notifications forevery app, for every single
thing on my phone.
It is such a distraction.
So I turned off all mynotifications.
There's only like one, I think,and it's for the weather, it's
for emergency weather.
That's the only notificationthat I have.
Um, another is perfectionism.
And I say this all the timeperfection is the enemy of
(13:58):
accomplishment.
Perfection is the enemy ofmoving forward because you're
waiting until everything isperfect before that you move
forward.
So you have to look at that.
Another is uh what we'd callteam firefighting.
So you want to get involved inputting out all the fires.
And if you have a team ofpeople, you need to train those
(14:22):
people to be the firefighters.
You don't need to be thefirefighter for everything that
goes on in your business or inyour department, in your
company.
Uh, and then the other is news.
People scroll down, they'relooking at news all the time.
And I got to tell you, theiPhone and other smart devices,
not just that brand, but anykind of smart device that you
(14:45):
utilize, it is such adistraction because news comes
so easily on these devices.
Whatever, however, you want toget your news, you can get it
right there on your phone.
It is so easy to get.
And that becomes a distractioneven for me at times.
Uh, so that's something, and andwhen we're talking about
distractions, I I fight thisevery day just like you do.
(15:07):
So I'm I'm I'm just saying thatwe have to be very smart and
very purposeful on how we dealwith distractions.
Uh, and then another is personalerrands.
Now that's not a big deal, butit can be if you let it get out
of hand.
So you have to watch that.
So personal errands.
So, you know, distractions tome, they fall into one of these
(15:30):
following categories.
It's either digital noise,because distraction to me is
noise.
And so it's digital noise, youknow, social media, email,
that's digital.
There's people noise, so that'speople coming in, interrupting,
doing the things that that youknow that are just taking time
(15:51):
away, taking your focus off whatyou were working on.
Uh, so there's people noise,there's internal noise, and
that's you, that's internally inyou.
And then there's material noise.
There's just physical thingsthat take and break your focus,
uh, no matter what it may be.
I I work a lot in my homeoffice.
(16:12):
I have a small dog.
He wants to be in my office andhe wants to be in my lap.
And it's like, dude, you youcan't I can't work when you're
in here running around, you'repestering me.
And I love my dog, but you knowwhat?
He's a he's a distraction.
Uh so you know, whatever thosethings are, you know, the
whatever those those things canbe, that noise that's
(16:35):
distracting you, you know, itjust it's a noise that draws our
attention away, it draws ourfocus away, it draws our time,
takes our time.
So what I'm saying is stopfeeding the noise.
Stop feeding the noise.
So anyway, we look at why dostra distractions win.
(16:57):
Why why do they win?
Well, distractions areimmediate.
And when you look at somethingand you're working towards your
purpose, your purpose is kind ofdistant.
It's far off.
You're trying to work towards agoal.
You know, the Bible says in 1John 2 16, it says the desires
of the flesh and the desires ofthe eyes.
He talks about the fact thatthese things are immediate
(17:20):
pleasures.
And the immediate pleasures aretypically the things that
distract us the most.
So that's a reason whydistractions win sometimes.
You know, your brain is wiredfor instant gratification.
You know, so a notification oran email or a social media ping,
it just delivers this dopaminebecause it gets it gets
(17:43):
something right now.
It it's it's instantgratification.
And uh, you know, the Bible saysset your minds on things above
and not on earthly things.
Again, just trying to stayfocused.
Another is distractions areeasy.
Typically, distractions areeasy, but if you're disciplined,
that at times is hard.
(18:04):
It's hard.
You're looking far off, and yetthere's something real easy
right here, and so that becomesa distraction.
Uh and the Bible says Proverbs12, 15, it says, the way of a
fool seems right unto him.
And uh so that's a that's that'sanother one.
It's because they're easy.
Um you know, I I I wouldencourage you to practice this
(18:28):
two-minute rule.
In other words, if a task takesless than two minutes, then do
it now.
If it takes less than twominutes, do it now.
And and this kind of kills themicro procrastination, right?
Um another thing is distractionsare loud, like I said, it
creates noise.
(18:48):
Now, it may not be physicalnoise, but it may just be
something that rattles in yourmind so much that you have to
deal with it.
But the Bible says in Psalms 46and 10, he says, Be still and
know that I am God.
Don't let the noise ofdistraction uh take and dominate
your life and interrupt you.
(19:10):
And you know, when you look atnews and and and notifications,
they're they're just noise.
It's just noise.
And God talks about stillness,but we rarely create that space
to listen.
And that's what you have to do.
You've got to protect yourspace.
You know, the Bible says theLord will fight for you.
(19:30):
You need only to bestill, bestill.
That's in Exodus 14, 14.
So again, it's important.
You know, uh maybe you just take10 minutes a day to just be
silent.
No phone, no noise, just pray,just listen, journal.
You know, I think those areimportant things.
And distractions are endless.
(19:50):
That's another thing.
They're endless, they're they'realways there.
There's distractions every dayif you allow them.
There are every day.
And and your time is verylimited.
You know, Psalms 90 and 12 says,Teach us the number of our days.
You know, so the internet, theinternet is infinite, but your
(20:11):
day is not.
And without boundaries, thesedistractions are going to
consume your most preciousresource, which is time.
You know.
Ephesians 5 16 says, Redeem thetime because the days are evil.
It's important.
Uh so what you want to do is inthose situations is you want to
(20:33):
um, you know, what you want todo is is take and um block your
time on your calendar.
Block time for specific things,and then you don't let those
things enter, don't let anythingelse interrupt that block of
time.
If you write, if you're awriter, then you block time.
You know, if you I want to writean hour a day, okay, block that
(20:54):
time.
What time are you gonna write?
Between seven and eight, ormaybe your best time is between
nine and ten, whatever it is,block your time and don't let
anything interrupt that time.
So you need to begin to writedown as we look at this
four-phase solution uh fordealing with distractions.
(21:15):
The first phase is you gottaname your distractions.
What are they?
Look and find out what they are.
You know, do uh distractionaudit, okay?
Uh journal those.
Put it put a journal down orwrite or get a journal and then
start writing down what theyare.
Look at what your top threetriggers are.
(21:35):
What is your top three triggers?
Maybe it's a sticky notesomebody puts on your desk.
Okay, well then don't letanybody put sticky notes on your
desk.
But what I'm saying is thatbegin to name your distractions.
You know, you need to focus onthis hit list so that you can
start to eliminate um thesedistractions.
(21:56):
So that's that's the first thingthat you need to do.
Uh the next thing that you needto do is you need to get some
order.
Okay.
Again, we talked about blockingtime.
Uh you know, Jesus blocked histime.
If you really look at it, whathe did, he he took time away.
He got away by himself.
(22:16):
And uh so he he blocked time.
He understood what wasimportant, he understood what
wasn't as important.
And you yourself, you canpractice that 80-20 rule, that
that that Pareto principle thatsays 80% of your results come
from 20% of your tasks.
So if you want to look at like acalendar, uh here's an idea for
(22:39):
a template for you.
So, like, for example, you know,and again, these are just
examples.
You you come up with ityourself, but say from 6 to 8
a.m., that's your deep work.
That's that's your revenue task.
That's what's going to make youmoney.
That's from 6 to 8.
Then from 8 to noon, maybe youhave team uh meetings or just
you know, meetings that you needto have.
(23:00):
Do that from 8 to 12.
And then from 1 to 3, do somedeep work again.
But maybe this is more involvingstrategy, looking at strategies.
And then from 3 to 5, do youradmin, do some of your emails.
Uh, do that maybe, maybe for 30minutes at a time.
Do it a couple of times.
(23:20):
Uh, you know, and I'll be honestwith you, I don't that very
seldom do I get an email thatcan't wait 45 uh uh 48 hours to
respond to.
Now I try not to do that.
I want to be professional, butto be honest, I mean, there's a
lot of stuff that comes acrossmy emails.
It's like I could wait for a dayor two to answer that.
So what I'm trying to tell youabout emails, don't live in your
(23:42):
emails.
I check my emails two to threetimes a day and that's it.
I wouldn't check them more thanthat.
You know, that's every that'sjust every few hours.
If you check them three times aday and you work nine hours, uh,
you know, you're checking youremails every three hours.
Folks, unless you're thepresident of the United States,
I don't think you have anythingthat pressing that you have to
(24:04):
to get right on.
So then the next phase is youneed to concentrate.
Concentrate on a single task.
Let me tell you something.
Multitasking is overrated.
I'm just telling you that.
You know, it's just overrated.
You know, you don't want tomultitask.
I tell you what, there's times Itake my phone, I put it in the
(24:26):
desk drawer.
I turn the ringer off and I justput it in the drawer, just as if
I don't even have a phone.
Because that's the other thing.
Most of my phone calls, they'renot that urgent that I have to
know about it right now.
And if they can't get a hold ofme by phone, they'll get a hold
of me by email.
You know, and so I I just Ithink you have to really watch
and concentrate on a singletask.
(24:47):
You gotta be like a sniper, yougotta be laser focused, one
thing at a time.
You know, uh Bruce Lee said, themartial artist, he said, the
successful warrior is theaverage man with laser-like
focus.
I think that is powerful.
You know, Paul says inPhilippians 3 13, he says, This
(25:10):
one thing I do, I press towardsthe mark of the prize of the
high calling.
And so he's focused on onething.
Again, you know, let'sconcentrate.
If you're gonna keep from beingdistracted, concentrate.
And then phase four, you gottaunplug, you gotta kill the
noise.
What whatever it is, you gottakill the noise.
(25:32):
Um, you know, your your inbox,let me say this your inbox and
your email, that's not yourto-do list.
Don't confuse those two.
Your email inbox is not yourto-do list.
Don't confuse it.
And let me say this busy isn'tproductive.
Again, I think I said thatearlier.
But being busy doesn't meanyou're being productive, but
(25:54):
being focused is.
Uh so you know, you look at youremails, like I said, you look at
them maybe at 10 a.m.
and look at them at 3 p.m.
Um, you know, I would encourageyou even now that for social
media, don't do any social mediafor 30 days.
Try to wean yourself on it.
You know, just try to try to tryto wean yourself away from that,
(26:20):
right?
And then, you know, the Biblesays in Matthew 6, 33, it says,
but seek ye first his kingdomand his righteousness, and all
these things will be given toyou as well.
So, you know, do the hard thingsfirst.
It's called it's called the eatthe frog principle.
You know, if you've got somethings you're dreading to do,
(26:43):
get those knocked out.
Because I'll tell you why.
When the hard things are infront of you, you are more um
you you will more than likelyallow distractions uh to enter
into your day because you reallydon't want to do those things.
Those are the hard things.
And so you allow thedistractions to come in.
(27:04):
You welcome them almost.
So get the hard things done, getthem out of the way.
And then that way thedistractions don't mean as much,
they don't help you as much,they don't provide as much for
you.
So it's like the eat the frogprinciple.
You do the most dreaded taskfirst, and it really eliminates
the mental drag of avoidance.
(27:25):
You know, uh Jesus teaches us toprioritize the kingdom first.
And in business, that meanstackling the task that aligns
with your calling even when it'shard.
And that's that's what you haveto do.
You you just have to tackle thehard things first and uh and
look at that.
You know, distractions are notalways seen as distractions, but
(27:47):
as we've discussed theseprinciples today, I hope that
you've recognized the potentialdestructive power that these
distractions can have.
And I'm confident that each ofyou um will begin to deal with
distractions and see them forwhat they are.
So, Lord, we come before youright now, Lord, and I thank you
(28:09):
for each and everyone who haslistened to this podcast today.
Lord, please help us torecognize distractions and
overcome them with your word.
And Lord, help us to focus onyou and then focus on those
things, the important thingsthat will bring true godly
(28:30):
success in our business, uh inour careers, in our families,
and in our personal life.
And Lord, we thank you for that,and we give you glory and honor
for it in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Well, thank you again, each andevery one of you, for being a
part of Christian BusinessConcepts Podcast.
(28:51):
And we hope that this has been ablessing to you.
If it has, please share it withtwo or three or four other
people.
And again, be sure to post alink uh on your your uh as a
post uh in your LinkedIn and andin uh your Facebook pages.
That would be a big help andthat would be a big blessing to
us.
Well, thank thank you again forbeing a part and allowing us to
(29:14):
be a part of your personalgrowth plan.
I I really appreciate it.
So until next time, remember,Jesus is Lord and He wants you
blessed.
SPEAKER_00 (29:32):
Thank you for tuning into this week's Christian
business concept podcast.
Go to Christian business conceptfrom Christianity podcast, your
business.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.