Eliminate Distractions and Focus on Your Passions for Higher Life Satisfaction

Everyone knows exactly what they want to be doing, let alone what they should be doing. Distractions are the devil to solid productivity.

I have confronted points of my life where I am extremely focused without any distractions. But I’ve also been confronted in times of my life where I do anything I can to escape my passions and things I know I should be accomplishing.

High school is a time where I wanted to check the box of schoolwork and then immediately play videogames, and sometimes I put videogames first. This bad habit of escapism when I should’ve been focusing on my work stressed me out even more. If you know your goals, you’ve got to cut out distractions.

By the end of this article, you’re going to have a better understanding of how to operate within a healthy work-life balance and learn some tricks to step up your productivity levels.

Demand a Healthy Work-Life Balance

By cutting out distractions, I don't believe that everyone should avoid doing things that help them unwind. That’s not what I’m saying at all. Finding a moderation balance between your tasks and your desires is the idea I’m promoting.

Personally, I’m not a person who can escape through Netflix or videogames and feel okay with it. This may be because I have a workaholic mentality so I am constantly feeling inadequate and that I need to get ahead and always be doing something.

If you have a passion you’ve been putting off for something more basic like TV or YouTube videos, then now is the time to turn it off and confront your deepest desires.

For me, writing is one of my biggest passions, yet I dodged it for nearly a month because I was unhappy with the money and my stagnating growth. I was tired of running away from my problems and instead turned off my videogames and got right to work. It paid off and made me so much happier.

How to Minimize Distractions at All Costs

Every single person needs a personal reward system. Without one, you’re going to constantly feel like a slave to the work you do, even if it’s a passion.

When you complete your work, pay yourself for your good deeds and get some good food, or buy the thing you’ve been wanting from Amazon. Whatever makes you grateful to do your work is the way you should reward yourself.

In my situation, for example, I used to have concerts and music festivals as my reward for a long month of constant grinding. Ever since the pandemic hit, I treat myself and my girlfriend to tasty food, unwinding nature walks, and any other spontaneous idea we come up with.

You don’t need to drop thousands of dollars in your personal reward system, but you do need to find out what makes life worth living for you and do that.

How to Boost Your Productivity

There are a thousand ways to boost your productivity. Whether it comes from extra phone apps, using YouTube as a resource, or reading a little extra self-help book every day, you can give yourself a competitive advantage.

Find the peak times of day that you are at your best. Figure out what type of environment you prefer to get into a flow state. Determine if music helps you or if it hurts your focus. Determine if your equipment is up to par with the quality of work you want to produce.

A lot of the questions revolving around productivity are very people-specific. That means I can’t tell you the best way to boost your productivity. You have to trial and error on your own until you know what gets you into the magical “flow state” of mind.

Never stop looking for ways to minimize any distractions. There’s always going to be something that pushes you away from your goals, but you’ve got to maintain the long-term perspective at all costs.

Everyone has their own types of distractions, including me. It’s our job to minimize them as much as possible and focus on our long-term goals while still living life to the fullest.

Finding your passion, maximizing productivity, and rewarding yourself for working hard is all dependent on you. Once you find the answer to all three of these, you’ll be set free and the sky becomes the limit.

Anything you want can be yours if you’re willing to self-diagnose and confront every aspect of yourself towards a solution.