When trying to eliminate distractions or interruptions in the office, it is good to draft your own top 10 and see how you can deal with them. Just trying to do something about distractions will not work as you don’t know what to focus on.

Creating a list of them and seeing which ones affect you the most will allow you to work through the list more effectively. You can use any of the below listed items and how they would rank for you.

In some future posts I will give you tips on how to deal with the distractions that you may encounter.

Email

Email can be on your list twice. One for the constant pop-up that you just received another new email and second for the fact that your email box never seems to be empty.

Telephone

It usually starts ringing from the moment you switch it on and stops ringing when you switch it off. Then when you switch it on again, it starts ringing again and notifies you of the several voice mails you received while it was switched of

Desk clutter

Your desk allows has interesting stuff on it that seems more important then the task you are currently working on.

Visitors/Colleagues

People who walk around the office always seem to have a chat next to your desk, think you know the answer to all their questions or feel that you need to be informed on what they did the other weekend

Environment

Maybe you feel too warm or too cold or there is a draft. These small environment distractions can create quite the nuisance.

Noise

Colleagues having a chat, the printing corner close to your desk or that vending machine that is just around the corner. When you are focussed each small sounds can distract you.

Meetings

Finally you are on a role and then, it is meeting time. Especially in an office environment, meetings can be quite frequent and cause you to get distracted

Lists

To-Do lists are great, too many of them can be distracting and overwhelming.

Expectations

A day just has 24 hours and you only have two hands, get my drift?

You

You can still have such a great system, if your mind keeps wandering off, nothing will keep you focussed. Make sure you are in tip-top shape!