Yesterday at work, dealing with the ever distracted nature of things - email comes, document attached, save the document, open the document in Word, notice another document opened earlier that needs looking at, attention diverted, phone call, meeting, back to the office, urgent email, etc....
I realized that it was difficult for me to keep my attention on one thing and finish it off, because as soon as I would move to a different application, even in the course of working on the original problem, it was out of view and something else would replace it.
I noticed some plastic bottle caps alongside my monitor that I hadn't taken to the recycling bin yet, and thought - I could use those as a reminder of my task.
The next thing I turned my attention to, I placed a bottle cap on the desk in front of the keyboard. I was looking at a document, and recalled an email that had some information I needed. Now the task had changed - find the email and get the information - and as soon as I started on that other emails popped into view that reminded me of more things that needed to be done.
But I had the bottle cap to remind me of the task I was on, and that helped me leave the distractions behind and stick with the task. Once complete, I had the satisfaction of placing the cap back in its 'waiting area.'
Later in the day, there was a point where one of the distractions was truly compelling, and I pulled a second cap out and allowed a very short queue to form. But when I completed the distracting task and put that cap back, I knew exactly what the remaining cap represented and directed my attention back to that.
Having a tangible token in front of me, regardless of what was front and center on the monitor at the time, helped me stay focused on what I needed to do.
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