Day 12: Discipline Demands Focus

It’s day 12 of the self discipline challenge. If you’re new, you can read what’s it all about here. Don’t worry, it’s not too late to jump in at any point. You’ll need the ebook 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life.

Okay, I’m sensing a real theme here, but once again, today’s topic really stepped on my toes! I feel like Crystal must have been spying on me when she wrote this chapter.

She says, “Are you on Facebook or reading blogs instead of cleaning up your kitchen at night like you committed to?”

Who, me? No, I would never do that. Ironically if you could only see me as I sat down to write most of the posts in the series, my actions would speak for themselves. Distractions can really be a major problem. Sometimes, when I sit down to write a post, I first check my e-mail, then twitter, I write a sentence and get stuck, so I hop on over to a couple blogs for “inspiration.” I click on all the interesting links throughout the blog posts, and 30 minutes later, I’m back to trying to write sentence number 2!

I find myself most “distracted” when I’m feeling stuck, confused, unsettled, unmotivated, or facing something I really don’t want to do. It’s easy to use those things as procrastination tools rather than getting to work!

Don’t even get me started on her other question: “Are you giving in to the temptation to eat two brownies every night, even though you’re trying to lose five pounds?” Well, do I look like I’ve lost five pounds? There’s your answer.

There’s not a perfect answer to this problem, but she suggests using Leechblock. Another useful tool is RescueTime, which will track all your online time, and give you a detailed report each week. How much time are you really spending on Facebook? That alone might be an eye-opener.

I think another huge cause of distraction for me is feeling like I have so much I want to accomplish that I don’t know where to start. I sit down at the computer unsure of whether I want to write another post in the series, or edit my latest food photos, or link up my latest recipe post to a bunch of linkies, or check my stats, so I just feel overwhelmed and waste time!

Therefore, I’m going to try something new. I put an index card by my computer and each time I sit down to work, I’m going to write down the first thing I want to accomplish. That way, I’m not stuck trying to figure out what to do.

So, how about you? How are you doing on the challenge? How do you deal with distractions? What’s your plan to eliminate or reduce them?