The Strategist

How Not to Be Distracted by Trivia



10/09/2015 - 16:12



With what a career success begins? Should be there "right" personality traits? Or a study of business processes going up and down? What ultimately determines our ability to be successful?



Jae
Jae
A psychiatrist and world-renowned expert on ADD (attention deficit) Edward Hallowell says that the key to success is the ability to concentrate. In his book " Driven to Distraction at Work" he tells about how to learn to control your attention, see life more deeply, understand more and work not selflessly but wisely.

When the work is a monster

The symptoms of attention deficit gradually take possession of a person. Typically, a person notices he has become irritated over trifles, ceased to love his job and grows tired of it. Not realizing how much the life circumstances has changed, he does not retreat, but takes on the responsibility. He grasps in a single flash and does not complain. At the time, the workload is being transformed into a monster with which people are unable to cope. In order to illustrate this grim situation, we can recall the story of the frog. If you throw it into a cauldron of boiling water, it will immediately jump out of it. However, if the cauldron is filled with cold water and being heated then, the frog will not realize it’s being boiled until the last moment.

For most of us, the fire has been lit under the pot for a long time, yet we still play heroes and do not notice that we need help.

Attention Deficit’s Price

The price that we pay for the loss of attention is not only a decline in productivity but also large monetary loss. The study, published in the Journals Inc. In 2006, shows that losses due to the diversion of staff computers were estimated at 282 billion dollars a year in the US alone. The authors found that an average employee spends about two hours of the eight working day( what is actually around 52% of that time) aimlessly moving from one site to another; the overall cost of doing nothing, according to the results of the study, amounted to 544 billion dollars, and 52% of them are precisely 282 billion.

Train your concentration

Fortunately, mindfulness and concentration are amenable to training, thanks to neuroplasticity of the brain. Neuroplasticity is the ability of the adult brain to steadily change its structure or function. What does it mean? This means that we can create for a special training course for your attention abilities and pump it like a muscle. Scientists already say that a person can completely reprogram themselves up to a full emotional reboot. Scientists still cannot say exactly what the limits of the neuroplasticity are. One thing is certain: the regular practice can change everything.

Emotional restart

People work up to sixteen hours a day to earn money for those they love - for their families. Emotions motivate us better than anything else. In all areas, one of the most powerful factors, influencing the quality of our work, are feelings that tickle us up to our work.

Is an ideal job a myth?

Do yourself a favor: instead of trying work harder and reminding yourself about the corporate culture, put yourself in a position where you will work diligently without any reminder. Then you will love what you are doing.

What is the result?

Today, it is critical to be able to control your intellect, own it, protect and develop it according to our own desires, and not with other people's whims, to be able to resist the whirlpool of useless, yet seductive information, vacuous ideas and idle chatter. Having developed the ability of getting such a state of mind which allows not only creating new ideas but bringing them to the actual implementation - you can manage life without letting it control you. With this, you will be able to achieve much more that you though, because never before the world had so many opportunities. Be creative. Do not let your ideas melt like snowflakes on a warm pavement. Catch them, save them and nourish them to grow and develop.

Based on Driven to Distraction at Work: How to Focus and Be More Productive by Edward M. Hallowell