EPISODE 14 - Mindset: How to avoid Distractions?

Michael Seidl: Welcome to a new episode of the Get Shit Done in IT podcast. My name is Michael Seidl and today the question is or the topic is how to avoid distractions. So today I want to provide you my insight, my hints, my tips to have a productive work time. And first of all, we need to clear some things. you cannot have eight hours of focus time or concentrated work. So you need some breaks, you need some positive distractions. So what we talk today is about how to find a way or hints and tips to find a way of one, one and a half or up to two hours of really focused work, of concentrated work. And then you do a break and something different, and then you can go back to that topic again. So that's the idea. don't expect me to provide you anything of eight hours of focused work. I don't think it is impossible. So you need a break, you need some rest. So we are talking about one to up to two hours of focused work. So I have three different things what helped me to find time. concentrated work. So first thing is of course the right place. So as I'm in the consulting business sometimes about half time or nearly half a time I work at several customers on site and the other half I work at home or in my office. So of course to have focused time when you're on site at the customer is much more complicated than you are in your own office, in your own space. And basically, I use the on -site work with customers to talk to customers, to exchange with customers. So it is not planned to have that focused time when you are at the customer, at least for me, it's not that planned. So first of all, it's the right place. So for me, it is in my office, at my house. And second,

Michael Seidl: Second thing is for the right place is we talked about that in a previous episode about productivity in home office. Have a room where you can close the door. for example, I have my office in my living house. So there are also my kids, my girlfriend, everything. So it is loud sometimes. And also the kids know the rule when the door is open, they can come in. That's okay. They can grab some sheets to make some drawings. But they also know the rule when the door is closed, they're not allowed or they should not come in. And that's really, that's okay for the kids. So they follow the rule. And so that's the most important thing. Have a room where you can close the door. And for me, on top of that, I will put on some headphones with some music, not too loud, but music and also silent headphones. noise cancelling headphones and that's the right place in the right area where I can start my my doings or my focus time. The next thing is of course you have to plan this time. You have to plan your slots in your calendar so it will not work to do focus time when you have to answer several emails, when you have to do chat assistance, when you have to respond to chat messages. when you have to do customer calls, Plan your focus time ahead and plan it in your calendar and plan what you want to do and also what the outcome should be in that period of time. It has to be clear when you start and how long your time slot is. Maybe you four hours in the morning and this is completely dedicated to a specific topic and 12 noon you should be finished because then there is a next appointment and it should be clear what is the result after these four hours. So that helps me a lot to concentrate on these topics. The third thing is definitely to move away all those things, those

Michael Seidl: which can distract you from your focus time. First of all, your smartphone. Yes, some guys will not be happy right now or some people, but you have to move away your smartphone. Another excuse is coming, I need to log into a multi -factor authentication, blah, blah. You can do this before, but move away that stupid thing in that case. turn it off or at least turn on the flight mode or the non -distraction mode iPhone has and put it away from your desk. it should not be able to distract you. really follow this rule. Smartphone is one of the biggest distractions for me right now. So it really helps to give away from my desk. to not see it, to have it not in my eye scope. So that's the best. Also for smartwatches or any other gadgets you can have on your desk. For example, I have funny smartwatch standing around here, so just for the time and date. But sometimes the newsflash is coming in and so on. So also some days this thing is also distracting me. put it on the the lay down on the desk so I don't see the display. So move away all devices, smartphones, watches, I don't know any any papers on the desk, also also those offline things, move away and clean up your desk so nothing can distract you in that time. So also a smartphone with the push notifications can distract you. Also, maybe some invoices laying on your desk, what will remind you, you have to pay them or whatever. move away those things from the desk to really have a good time and try to, and it's much, much easier to find a focus time. So that's the third and maybe one on top, but what is also very important. So now you have the best location.

Michael Seidl: Now you have moved away all the distractions and you planned your to -dos. There's one more thing that can hold you back from focus time and that's your head, your brain. So make sure that no open loops, no open topics are in your head and you try to keep them on. You keep them. in your in your mind because you have to do it later. Make sure you write those things in your single source of shit. So in your system, all your to do's are stored. So before you start with your focus time, make sure all those things in your head are written down in your system. And of course, it can be that there is something in your head you have to solve directly. Yes. So for example, I record this episode, beginning of August, two weeks ago, the CrowdStrike patch hit the world. So if something is happening, your focus time is very low priority. So you have to make sure that there might be some things you have to clear and finish and resolve before you can have your focus time. So make sure you bring... Bring out all your to -do's out of your head to your system and make sure that there might be things that can harm you or block you from your focus time you need to solve immediately. So then your focus time is last priority. Okay, so make sure that that is okay. So your brain is also very important to have focus time to concentrate on one single topic. And additionally on this, it is also okay if it doesn't work on that specific planned time slot or day. So of course, if you train and if you follow those rules, maybe you have some different or additional rules to find your focus time. But if you follow them constantly, you will learn and it gets easier to dive into that flow so called, so to have that focus time.

Michael Seidl: it's also okay if it just doesn't work out. Accept it. You can try. You can force yourself. You can try to maybe walk around in the office, meet a colleague, talk to them a few minutes and then try again. And you can try to force. Sometimes it helps. But it's also okay that it's not working today. Then move it to a different time slot, to a different day. So for example, or every to

Michael Seidl: And for this you have to be very, very open -minded and find some wordings and write nice texts and everything. And that's definitely not my best, my best, my total and complete hanger.

Michael Seidl: And for this, have to find my time and be very creative. And to be honest, creativity is not definitely not my best property or my best attitude. Okay. So it's very hard for me to go into those creative process and write some funny stuff or whatever, and some short stories and everything. And sometimes it just... can't get into it. There are some days I cannot be creative. And now I have two options. I can force myself and try again and try again and try again and it will not work and try again. And I haven't finished anything for hours lost without any result. In this case, it would be better to postpone this task, do some other stuff, some easier stuff, some completely other areas. and do those creativity stuff later on the next day, on the next week. Of course, every time you have to keep your deadline in mind, and sometimes you have to force and sometimes maybe it helps to do only a little bit of that and just to meet the timelines or the deadlines, but it's completely okay if today is not the right day for this exact topic. So that's also fine. Don't be sad if it's not working out every time to get into this focus time. It's also okay if it's not the right day, not the right time, not the right topic, try it on a different day. So that is also okay. So I hope that helps. Let me know what you think. Maybe you have some different hints or tips or advices, how you find your focus time, how you... try to avoid distractions, let me know if you have any questions for this podcast. Write me a text or a voice message on LinkedIn, please. I would be happy to have your questions in one of the next episodes. And at the end, I wish you a nice week ahead. Stay productive and bye bye.