Actions Against AD/HD Distractions

Actions against AD/HD Distractions:
How to Ensure a Better Bottom Line for Your Business
By Geraldine Markel, Ph.D.

A primary characteristic of AD/HD is distractibility. Distraction is a significant barrier to achieving efficiency and productive in business. You are diverted from important tasks and performance lags. Too frequently, distraction leads to procrastination, incomplete projects and stress.

How much is distraction costing your business in missed opportunities, needless mistakes, late fees, or neglect of management chores or professional commitments? Multiple distractions can sabotage your ability to achieve a better bottom line.

This is especially acute during times of serious economic downturn and uncertainty. In this 24/7 world, the lines between work and life blurred. On a surface level, profitability suffers. At a deeper level, distraction undermines your intention to live according to your deepest values.

As a business owner, you can improve profitability and decrease stress when you take conscious and systematic action against the major distractions that interfere with effective time and task management. You can break old, unproductive habits and learn new, productive ones. There are practical, research-based strategies to help you deal with the common distractions that plague you and interfere with your productivity and profitability. Specific tactics and tips address ways to deal with procrastination, messy or incomplete record keeping, and neglect of marketing, networking or writing activities.

Persons with AD/HD feel like there are forces lurking around them that foil their efforts. These forces feel like demons and they interrupt the flow of attention and concentration. Within the work/life setting, there are eight demons of distraction: technology overload, interruption by others, over scheduling and inappropriate multitasking, noisy or messy space, stress, fatigue, illness or medication, and unruly mind.

Here are some steps to help you defeat your Demons of Distraction:

Identify the specific distractions that rob you of the time and energy you need to become more profitable. For example:
o Are you constantly interrupted by others? (The Others Demon)
o Do you distract yourself by surfing the Internet or talking/texting on your cell phone? (The Technology Demon)
o Is stress or a racing mind interfering with your concentration? (The Unruly Mind Demon)

Take action, such as:
o Create boundaries for at least some portion of the day to allow for creativity and think time. If someone asks, “Do have a minute?” say, “I wish I did, but not right now. Let’s schedule something for later.”
o Impose an Electronic Lockdown: turn off or silence all equipment except the one you need to accomplish the task-at-hand.
o Make sure to take frequent breaks throughout the day. Use exercise, humor or perhaps journaling to reduce stress and refocus the mind.

Although a few distractions may be managed easily, constant distractions can lead to feeling overwhelmed, irritable, and ineffective. Better management of distractions, however, spurs greater productivity, creativity, and profitability—while lessening stress.
Greater mindfulness of the types of distractions that plague you due to ADHD helps you reduce interruptions and distractions in your business setting and will lead to higher productivity and profitability. Be on the defense and defeat your personal demons of distraction.