From the Desk of a Recovered Distraction'aholic
               ~ Stacey Stockman

I am a recovering distraction'aholic. Even now, as I sit down to write this article I feel reminiscences of this haunting addiction, and find myself having to pull my mind back on track in order to complete the task at hand. We're all familiar with the scenario; the boss is getting on you about making some deadline that has already been twice extended and yet, I find that the email containing the latest Chinese Horoscope just can't be passed by, even if just for a quick look see. 
                     No; out demon out! 
                          Not now, must remain focused.

In this technological age of staying connected and dialed in at all times we have created all sorts of new flavors of distractions. "Beep", it's a text message, reporting the receipt of the latest spam fax. "Ring", it's your Skype friend calling to report she's in Belize. "Chime", it's that Chinese Horoscope come round to be forwarded again, or you'll be one stuck with the bad luck. Distractions are everywhere and the beautiful part of the whole thing is the universe will continue to deliver them to you as long as you want. It's like a never ending card game; the only difference is you never win. So what does one do?

While some of the following 'How to's' may seem pretty basic, to that I say "good", you should have know problem applying them to your life with ease. However, others of these concepts may be new; that's even better, as this means that you should have no barriers to overcome in their application and may begin backing away from the table of minutia right now.

1. Know what you want to accomplish and the BIG three ~ This would appear at first to be one of those gimme's to most of you. However, ask yourself how many times have you walked away from your day, week or even month and thought to yourself "I know I showed up, but what did I do while I was here?" Setting your goals requires you to be realistic with what you can accomplish within whatever time you have available. The tycoons of industry and myself, recommend isolating your BIG three tasks and only three tasks, you look to accomplish in a day. Now here is the BIG one, anything and everything outside of your BIG three does not count, does not your get attention, your focus or your energy.

2. Estimate timeframes with your heart ~ There is no question you are capable of wonderful and amazing things, as I do not discount your abilities. However, what I want you to do now is to estimate with your heart exactly how long it will take to complete each of your BIG three things. I can not stress enough to you the need for you to use your heart when estimating. A good way to see if your heart is estimating appropriately is to ask yourself, "Would I place the same demands or expectations upon my best friend?" If your answer is yes, then your using your heart; if it is no, well, you get the picture.

3. Allocation without control ~ For all of the recovering control junkies out there, we are going to ease you into this next one. You know how you feel when you help someone. It feels good, right? So why not share the opportunity to feel good with someone else by asking for their help. Upon determining what you want to accomplish, look at your day and/or your master life plan and start identifying who you can ask for help. Also, don't forget to place your order into to the Universe and say thank you. Now back away slowly, and let it be done.

4. Know thy enemy ~ The enemy is anything that starts us spiraling away from what we are looking to accomplish. It goes something like this. My phone rang?I had to answer. My email chimed?I had to peek. My (blank) signaled I had to (blank); I'm sure you have much to fill in the "blanks". Now rather than seeing these things as commands, I ask you here to begin seeing these as requests. For example, what may disguise itself as a harmless glance at your email inbox, can lead to 'quick' Internet surfing; and a 'quick' laugh at latest Daily Report antic, followed by a 'quick' walk around the office, a 'quick' cup of coffee, and a 'slow' phone call your very talkative sister. Now that harmless 2 minute email glance has turned into 2 hours. Remember, you and your heart agreed to "the BIG three, with plenty of time to do them." This brings us to?

5. Disarming your bear traps ~ So now you have identified and isolated the enemy, let's try something different; I call this "disarming your bear traps." Some of those enemies you quarantined do require your attention. What we are going to do here is schedule them into your day. If you find that email can take you off course often, then block off certain times for you to read and respond to it. If your phone conversations often throw you off track, schedule specific times to listen to your voicemail and return phone calls.

6. Reward yourself with a good feeling ~ You have now accomplished your BIG three tasks for the day; while managing not to feed any bears in the process. Now what do you do? Before you jump into the next task, take a moment and breathe, bask in and enjoy the feeling of your accomplishments.

Recovering from distraction' holism can be a major disorder and may take some time. Fortunately, working with these steps has helped me and many others to develop the focus and discipline required to recover. Remember to embrace your accomplishments, smile while doing it, and enjoy the beautiful journey of life.

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