3 Ways to Find Focus Amid Distraction

3 Ways to Find Focus Amid Distraction It’s a holiday weekend in my local village as I sit here and record this podcast. In just a few hours fireworks, BBQs, and picnics will have dot the streets like stars in a country sky. It’s quite a beautiful display of community pride and family love, yet as much as I tried to plan ahead, I still find myself with some work I need to finish before diving into the festivities. Does this ever happen to you? Perhaps if you work from home like I do much of the year, you also struggle with finding work/life balance when there isn’t a clear punch-in/punch-out clock. So, how does one find focus amid the Sirens of distractions? Turn Off Media and Multitask No-More There’s no such thing as background noise. There’s noise and then there’s silence. If the television is on and a person is on the phone, for instance (like I caught myself doing yesterday), the mind struggles to find clarity. Background noise turns mindful thinking into white noise confusion. Multitasking is dead. Tuning into the present is very much alive. Try this: Next time you go for a drive, focus on just driving. Next time you go out to dinner, leave the phone in the car and challenge your friends to do so, as well. Tune into the point of meeting up for a meal: connect with those you love. Next time you catch yourself doing a bunch of things at once, drop it all and go for a ten-minute walk. And just walk, becoming aware of the breath and the minutia of your movement. Craft a To-Do List I have my wife to thank for this one. Every afternoon when I come over to my wife’s office, I always see the same array: beautiful jewelry hanging around, pages of her novel writing on the table, and a checklist on her desk. Written in my wife’s beautiful calligraphic script, she checks off the needed tasks for the day. When the list is complete, she can breathe easy, and there will be no guilt-trips when she turns on one of her favorite television shows later on. Try this: Create a list of 3-5 tasks you want to accomplish by the end of the day. Get them done as quick as possible and then take a walk. Tell yourself during the walk that you’ve done everything you needed to do that day. Anything else is just a bonus. More than likely you’ll do more than that list, but without unnecessary stress. Take A Break To Tune Into The Breath One of the most valuable tools yoga has provided me with is learning how to take a real breath. In modern society, we’ve learned how to take consistent shallow breaths.  Shallow breathing leads to shallow expression. And here’s the kicker: Mladen Golubic, a physician in the Cleveland Clinic's Center for Integrative Medicine, teaches us that when you take in a full and complete breath with, for example, a 4-second inhale and 4-second exhale, your parasympathetic nervous system overrides the sympathetic nervous system and your cortisol level decreases. Translation: Deep breathing has been scientifically proven to calm the mind, body, and nerves. Try this: Set a timer every 30 minutes to take several deep and steady breaths. In my personal experience, this has helped me return to a clear focus with a calm mind.   How about you? How do you stay mindful and focus during the holidays when you still have a bunch to do?