Radical Solution for a Common Problem

I’m sitting in my car right now. I’m at the park, under a tree, with the windows down. I’m uncomfortable, it’s hot, and there’s a surprising amount of traffic going by. My phone is at home and I don’t have internet. I have a portable charger, a paper notebook, and a non-cellular iPad.

I have a ton of work to do and I wasn’t doing it. At my home office there are distractions, both external and internal: the dogs, YouTube, texting, emails, phone calls. I have deadlines and I couldn’t focus.

It was time for drastic actions, so I employed a radical solution. I knew I couldn’t ignore the distractions, despite my best efforts, so I had to remove myself and leave all the distractions behind.

I’ve tried this strategy in the past and found it especially useful. In fact, using pockets of time when I arrive somewhere early is one of the strategies I use to beat back procrastination (see my other tips here).

I’m not sure why it took panic about deadlines to push me to employ it again. I find it so effective that I’m going to start scheduling some car-work time on a regular basis.

Have you tried this or a similar strategy when you’re being weighed down by distraction? Let me know in the comments.