Re: Work Distractions

[Anonymous]

I too am pushing as much as possible to move work stuff to email. For me, it saves me having to trust my memory and attention span, and for others it makes me accountable, because they can not only confirm they emailed me, but even what I said in my response.

I have a private office at work as I’m a therapist. The up sides are around outside distractions, but I’ve got combined type and there’s still LOTS of distractions I can find for myself besides colleagues. The best work environment for me to catch up on paperwork (the bane of my existence) is my office (NOT at home) when no one else is here (ie. after 4:30 or on week-ends. That way no colleagues or clients distract me, but I don’t have the x-box, home improvement work or my kids to distract me from what I need to get done.

Like Philabuster, I find an mp3 player helpful. If I’m doing mindless work, I often play audiobooks or podcasts. If I have to concentrate (ie. paperwork, etc) I still put the earbuds in to block out sound but don’t press play.

Of course, I’ve taken meds for the past 4 years. My career was doable but much harder before. I take them at home too. I’m able to be the kind of patient, kind and attentive father and husband that I want to be, which is MUCH harder when I take a med holiday.

Ironically, I should have been doing paperwork and phone calls for the last hour instead of looking up and exploring this site. For paperwork (which has to be on a networked computer at my office) I usually find I waste the least amount of time when I don’t allow myself to open a browser or a game on my phone call day, and use audio-only distractions on the mp3 player when I feel I REALLY need a break.

Oh, and I use an iPHone with Google Calendar and Toodledo (Task manager) to help stay organized, remember stuff and get reminders. I find these tech solutions VERY helpful, although they also allow for distractions if I let them (ie. if installing games on iPhone, etc). I’m thinking of buying an iPod touch for games and uninstalling all games from my phone. That might be a good idea…

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