In the past few weeks, this is probably one of the most discovered obstacles - a distracted mind. How often does our day come to an end, and we look back and wonder, what have I accomplished today? And probably, it isn't solely because we didn't do anything or because we didn't have enough time, but mainly because we were distracted and continuously interrupted.
There are two different kinds of distractions, mental and digital. Each has its difficulty in how to face and overcome them. The mental distraction requires us to reflect and understand our thought patterns. Digital distraction needs us to increase our awareness of what our relationship is to the devices and applications and how to adjust our constant accessibility.
Exploring how we could improve our mental distraction in this new adjusted routine, we first have to acknowledge that we always had the tendency to be distracted. Our minds work that way; they are programmed that if we don't pay attention to our thoughts and action that we keep finding new ways to stay busy. Very rarely do we find ourselves contemplating on one thought or emotion, observing the present moment, or our breathing. It might sound irrelevant or superficial, and the opposite is true. If we would take those pauses, we could gain more time to accomplish more because we were able to cancel out the noise, the distractions.
When it comes to digital distraction, we need to take action. There are implemented notifications that don't serve us and add to continuous disturbance. It takes dedicated time to notice and admit that our devices and applications causing us to lose sight of what is relevant. One way is to reduce our notification on our phones, put it on silent, or completely turn them off and put them away when you have a specific task to complete and focus.
There are additional reasons why we have trouble focusing. One is that we don't want to miss out on a great opportunity; another reason is that we are not given a choice to stay focused and on track; also that we are multitasking; a further that we become restless or bored on one particular activity. All four challenges are fixable when we pause and let ourselves have a moment of introspection.
Finding time focusing on our breath for some time to stay with discomfort and observing our minds getting distracted, will help us to refocus whenever we fall off the wagon. Like anything, this takes time, effort, dedication, and mental will. I invite you to reduce notifications, put our phone away, pause between tasks, and establish a routine of being aware of our breath. This might sound like a lot, but it is for our benefit and see for yourself if focus and time availability increases. Good Luck!