Over the years, I have been a victim of distraction. That’s what happens when you are an idea person. Got an idea, I’m already onto the next one. Distraction is almost like an addiction, I imagine. I wanted to share with you my top 5 tools for keeping me organised and in focus.
1. Brain.fm
Create the time and space for your brain – White noise, subliminal beats. I like to use the electronic focus loop when I start out my day, having my morning Kombucha or when I am trying to smash out a campaign deadline for a client. I generally fire up Brain.fm focus loop for the first 15 minutes then BOOM! I’m in the zone! Make sure you have a good set of ear plugs or head phones. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself ‘mentally tired’ its hard work being intensely focused. This has to be one of my favourite hacks because it allows me to drown out distractions and to get really zoomed in on what I want to achieve.
2. Email Email Email
I work best when I have gotten that next million dollar idea out of my head. If I email it to myself then I can search by my name and there it is, it acts as if it’s a to-do list. Using a specific subject line so I can easily search for it helps also. I never write them down because I tend to lose notepads. I like to use a tool called Fireshot it is a Chrome plugin that you can screen shot an entire web page or just certain areas I then attach these screen shots to my email so I can have some visual prompts when working on that to-do list item.
3. Notes App on my iPhone
This little app is far from sexy, but it serves a purpose. I throw my hashtags in there for Instagram and Twitter – I have a separate note for each client I am managing so when I’m out and about and I have an idea for that client I add it to their note. I love it because it syncs between my iPhone and iPad. I can email a copy of it to myself, or to my client and it’s just always there. Something you can rely on.
4. 90-minute alarm
Being aware of your time is something I have always found challenging. When I’m with a client for instance I get swept up in them. In their needs and I’m so passionate about helping them succeed online that I found I was putting myself under a lot of time pressure. Making sure I always delivered what I said I would meant that I would have to sacrifice me time. So I had to start being mindful of the time. I started setting alarms throughout the day. In 90min intervals. This made me aware that another 90mins had past. I could choose to stop what I was doing and finish up or I could snooze it and would be reminded in another 8 minutes. The key here is to being aware of how time flies, and are you being productive enough?
5. DND mode on my phone and having it facedown
Being a Social Media Strategist and Online Marketer my entire business revolves around Social Media and Emails. So In any given hour I could have had 350+ notifications on my phone. As crazy as that sounds, it’s not all for me, it constitutes my clients Facebook advertising campaigns, new email subscribers, Instagram likes and comments and notifications of sales that have taken place for my online social media chaos course. So it would be a constant distraction every time my phones screen would light up. Who in their right mind makes a phone vibrate when it’s in silent mode anyway?!?! Hence the DND mode. This stops the vibrating, stops the screen from lighting up, and I also flip it face down just in case I am tempted to wake it up and have a sneak peek.
