Avoiding distraction during COVID 19

Today, I wanted to talk about distraction. In terms of your business.

With everything that's going on in the moment with COVID-19, it's understandable that your productivity might be compromised at the moment.

I have definitely been distracted.

I've put in place a different plan for my days to avoid being distracted too much.

Watch the video as I explain or read the transcription below.

Video Version

Transcription

Why Constant Updates is Distracting

Like, I find myself having to check the news quite often, have a look at the stats, see what the numbers were New Zealand are up to, see what the numbers for Australia up to, see what the US is doing, see what the UK is doing, watch the latest news... But unfortunately, that means that nothing else much gets done.

So, I think that's understandable, to begin with. But I think, eventually, that checking the news like every half hour has diminishing returns. Really, it just becomes a distraction rather than anything useful. So, your just not going to get any more useful information from the news anymore now that's things have become more settled.

My New Routine

So I've started making a few different rules for myself. Prior to COVID-19, I hardly ever watch the news at all. But during COVID-19, I found myself wanting to keep up to date with what's happening all the time.

Now, when Nicky and I get up before we go for a run, we will listen to the radio news in the morning. We'll probably do that for half an hour just to get updated. Then we'll go for a run. Then, I will break my day up into individual hours -- just one hour at a time because I find it's a little bit difficult to concentrate for more than that time at the moment.

Finding the Balance

During my 1-hour blocks, I will make sure that I don't check the news or check the stats any time before that hour is up. So I'll break my day up to 7-hour blocks and lockdown what I'm going to do for each of those hours.

Then at the end of the hour, I will allow myself to just go and quickly check something that I want to check. And I won't spend too much time doing it. Instead of just checking wherever or whenever your mind floats away to it, you've set yourself some rules to stay productive. At least it's just, maybe a half-hour of your time.

So you can give yourself extra time and then you'll be able to achieve a lot more during the day. It's probably not as much as you normally would, but hopefully, more than you have been in the last week or so when things have really started to get out of control.

So anyway, hopefully, that helps and I'll come back to you tomorrow with the next tip about creating the best version of your endurance coaching business during these challenging times.