How To Stay Focused

Sometimes I find myself wondering how to stay focused when I’m seemingly engulfed by distractions. Many of which are self imposed by my own doings. There is no doubt that through great technological advances ranging from the invention of the automobile, cellular phones and high speed internet the world has gotten in one big hurry! While these inventions have undoubtedly contributed to a better quality of life and productivity they can just as easily have a reverse effect depending on how we wield them.

Welcome To The New Age

Many are referring to this period of time as the Information Age. Never before have we been able to have access to so much information so quickly! Many of us “myself included” while browsing the internet have an average of about a 3 second attention span before we make a decision to either move on or continuing viewing the content in front of us. We used to refer to people with such “problems” as having Attention Deficit Disorder which means “A chronic condition including attention difficulty, hyperactivity, and impulsiveness.” Does this sound familiar to you?

Our smart phones and mobile devices are constantly making audible and visual notifications that cause us to instinctively without thought reach for them to see what’s going on. You’ve got spam mail!, Somebody just mentioned you in a Facebook post which has absolutely nothing to do with you! There’s a new update available for your app, wanna update it? Someone just re-tweeted you and Yada Yada Yada! Most of it is just a whole lot of noise that isn’t pertinent to us at all.

Blinders

The bottom line is most of us these days are very distracted and it’s negatively effecting our quality of life. You know what’s interesting? Have you ever noticed that horses have what is called “blinders” over their eyes? This is to prevent them from being distracted from what’s going on around them and being spooked by outside influences. This allows them to stay on their path and focused on what’s in front of them. Maybe we could benefit from our on rendition of these blinders?

Perhaps we have made ourselves too available. Maybe we should disable most of our notifications on our phones and only sign into our social media accounts once per day if that. Heck maybe we should even cut the dang thang completely off at certain times of the day or when we are on a date or visiting a loved one.

Life Is To Short

I have found that since I have been limiting my accessibility I’ve been a lot more focused on my path and the future that’s ahead of me just like the horse. I think it’s important to learn how to shut the world off at times, kill the noise and focus on what’s most important. Life is just to short to be consumed in meaningless distractions. Can you relate to my views I expressed in this article? Have you developed your own blinders to allow you to be more narrow minded and focused? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below!