Last week in Blogging Truths Be Told: Distractions Do Exactly What They Are Meant To Do, I told you I wouldn’t leave you hanging, regarding some of the results-oriented solutions I have for distractions challenges. And true to my written word, I want to come with a couple of problem-solving tips for you in today’s “Blogging Truths Be Told” follow-up. So, let’s get straight into the good stuff.
#1 – Assign Yourself an Accountability Partner(s)
Guess how easy it is to shirk on responsibilities when you have no one to answer to. Let me tell you . . . it’s EXTREMELY easy. So easy, in fact, that you may not do the responsible thing altogether. And that’s why I’ve listed “accountability partner(s)” as the first tip for managing distractions.
Now, if having integrity is important to you, then this tip will be golden for you. As a matter of fact, it’ll only be beneficial to you if you’re a person who has a strong moral compass. Being “accountable” to someone else for your actions places the onus of responsibility for those actions on YOU, the individual held accountable.
And since I’m assuming you’re that person of integrity with a strong moral compass, then I’d go so far as to say that you’re (more often than not) a person of your word. And for this reason, it would make it very difficult to let distractions come in and completely derail you from accomplishing what you’ve communicated to your accountability partner(s) (the individual(s) holding you accountable) you will do.
If you tell your accountability partner(s) you’re going to do a certain something, then you intend to follow through because you don’t want to be viewed as someone who doesn’t keep his or her word . . . someone who’s not dependable . . . someone who’s not honorable.
It’s like this: the one holding you accountable threw the ball in your court; and now, the next move is on you. What are you going to do? Well, the conscientious individual desires to meet the expectation(s) and won’t waste the shot that’s been given to him or her. He or she will follow through with execution to do his or her best to meet the end goal.
Usually.
However, you might let the distractions derail you temporarily. And to that note, I’d say to be very careful that you don’t fall into a pattern of letting distractions “temporarily” take you off course. Those temporary episodes add up and can lead to a behavior pattern that you never anticipated would be a part of your personal make-up.
But I’ll be honest with you. Some distractions will take you out of the game — ALL THE WAY out of the game. And there’s nothing you can humanly do about it. The welcome mat hasn’t been laid out for the unanticipated, unavoidable, and no-way-to-control-them distractions. Therefore, I’ll leave them outside the front door since they seem to impose their will when they want to.
So, I’m specifically honing in on the distractions that you have within your power to control, know are bad for your productivity, but invite into your space anyway.
Even the best of us get tripped up with these charismatic distractors that entertain you, lull you to sleep, or provide a constant companion that can bring comfort to you in a moment’s notice. Can anyone say . . . tv, the internet, the cell phone, food binging, yada, yada, yada . . . ?
But the do-gooder will prevail in the end.
Your mental acuity is a strong motivator against distractions. Your conscience will tell you that you would rather get that something done (whatever it is) rather than let down your accountability partner who has invested his or her time and energy to your cause.
#2 – Schedule Your Blogging Activities
Schedule! Schedule! Schedule stuff out, my friend. Scheduling your blogging activities (and this can consist of blogging activities outside of the actual writing of the post as well) is just one of those best practices that can save your hide over and over again. Don’t leave your to-dos up in the air; because in all reality, you may forget about them or won’t get to them if you don’t have them as part of your regular routine, or schedule. I’m just saying.
And, I know this from personal experience. Let me finish this section out by shedding a little light on scheduling from my perspective. Just maybe, you can relate to where I’m coming from because you’ve been there too. Keep reading to find out . . .
If I don’t plan out my blogging schedule and communicate it to others (there’s that accountability thing again), then I’ll always revert to the “other” things that seem to be more of a priority at the time. (There will always be some, you know? Those to-dos that will take over your best-laid plans if you let them.)
And since blogging will always be an important part of my life on a personal as well as professional level, I’ve taken the steps to make sure that my blogging schedule is etched in WordPress stone. Tuesdays and Fridays are my days for now, but the schedule can change in the future. And when and if it does, I’ll make sure to communicate it to this wonderful blogging community here. (Hold me accountable, folks!)
Hypothetically, let’s just say that distractions creep in on my scheduled time to publish my blog posts. Well then, I’ll just have to own those distractions and try to abate their effects the best I can so I can accomplish my goal (or get as close to accomplishing my goal as possible). As a matter of fact, I shared with you last week that my post was later than normal in appearing before you all. Well, I’m getting this one out quite a bit later than last week, even.
It’s another one (or several) of those distractions at play, but they were important all-day distractions that needed to be addressed before any blogging business took place. And although I’m late in getting this discussion published, I still managed to adhere to my blogging schedule of a Friday blog post this week. The distractions delayed but didn’t derail.
What do you know? Here we are at the end of this post. I think I’ll go ahead and close it out, but not before revealing another “follow-up to distractions” discussion. I think I’ll come to you with tip #3 next time, and it has everything to do with knowing your “Why” for blogging and how your “Why” can affect distractions. That discussion deserves its own headline. I so look forward to breaking that one down. Until then . . .
degreesofmaternity.com 