Most of us carry our smartphones everywhere we go:
- in the bathroom
- while eating
- while driving
- while walking
- while sleeping
- while working
Let’s face it. We are constantly distracted with all the notifications coming from our social media, email messages, texts and phone calls.
If you plan on investing in your personal brand, you need to be productive since there’s a lot of work to do. From creating a personal website to raising awareness of your brand on social media, you can’t afford being interrupted.
Think about it for a moment: what’s the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning?
Here’s a list of 5 ways you can eliminate smartphone distractions:
1. Enable Airplane Mode (An Extreme Tactic)
The only time that I actually use this feature is when I’m on the plane or when I really need to have a good night sleep and I can’t afford being interrupted. It’s like turning off your phone. You won’t really miss a thing only phone calls but they will be forwarded to your voice mail. Otherwise, your emails will come in as soon as you disable airplane mode and so will your social media notifications.
Use this feature if you can’t lose sight of your phone. It might be sitting right beside you but at least, it won’t distract you with all its notifications. Here’s a tip: airplane mode can also save some battery life in case you’re low.
2. Enable silent mode
This is a popular feature on a smartphone. If you really want to focus and not miss a thing, simply put the phone on silent mode. Calls, emails & notifications will still come in but they won’t make a sound.
I gotta admit though, your curiosity will be tested. When I do this, I keep wondering what’s happening on my phone as I can see notifications popping up on my screen. That’s why airplane mode is extreme since the screen remains off as there is no reception.
3. Turn off social media & email notifications
For me, the only thing that really distracts me is the social media notifications. I don’t receive many calls as I used to.
So whenever I want to focus on a project related to my personal brand, I simply turn off notifications coming from popular social apps like Facebook & Twitter. It really helps.
4. Put the phone in another room
I remember listening to Arianna Huffington speaking at Hubspot Conference a couple of years ago where she mentioned that in her home, there are no electronics allowed in her bedroom. It makes a huge difference when doing so as you’re required to put an effort in getting your device since you need to walk to the other room.
5. Punish yourself
Similar to how a swear jar works where you end up paying some money every time you swear, you can do the same every time you pick up your phone whenever you should be focusing on working on your personal brand.
Conclusion
If you want to stop giving yourself excuses as to why you don’t have time to invest in your personal brand, you can implement these simple proven tactics to help you become more productive.
You will realize that it doesn’t take much to write a blog post, share a status update on Facebook or even message someone within your network on Linkedin. You just need to focus and get it done.
What other tactics have worked for you?