Manage Your Distractions

3 Comments: Manage Your Distractions

1. This article seems so close to my personal “distraction”. I often find myself rehearsing a possible dialog about some upcoming event or contact. “If they say…I’ll say” on and on untill I almost have developed an emotional position even if that converstaion or discussion will never take place! Holy distraction! I will pace while on a phone call and almost copy that practice when I am having this “Mental Conversation Masterbation” as I call it. The distraction is so overwhelming that I get lost while I am in the middle of some household task or boring activity where I find myself wndering what is next.

   Writing it down is a great tool for this, thank you. I have also tried to apply a “S.T.O.P.” strategy/rule using “S” for stop when I realize what is going on, “T” takes a breat, “O” observes what I am thinking non judgementally and “O”rganizes any appropriate thoughts, and “P” allows me to pray for understanding and then I can simply “P”roceed.

   I wish there was a “save” button or “like” to keep articles nearby that I find helpful. Like this one! Thanks!

   1. Hey man, I literally mad this account just to reply to your comment because over the last few months especially I have noticed the same thing with my self. Its really hard to explain to people but I’ve really been struggling lately with not being able to stop these deep thought trains. My mind just seems to run away on these tracks why I too run through hypothetical conversations in my head and get completely consumed by them making it really hard to focus on literally anything I do. When I was younger my issues with add were more external distractions and just motivation in general. But it seems like as I’ve been getting older these issues with racing thoughts and internal distractions have been getting worse and worse. Especially if I’m really stressed out about something or if I’m going though a change in environment which my college education provide quit a bit of lol.

      1. @distracted golfer…

         Your reply is much appreciated. It seems you have defined these “hypothetical conversations” perfectly and I would like to incorporate your analysis into my personal definition/understanding since it appears very “on track”! Deep thought “trains” like ours seem so powerful that even when I recognize that the train has left the station and running at full steam it is seemingly impossible to S.T.O.P, an acronym I made up to try to get this train off track. Often when I recognize this familiar train, I can stop it and look at it, but it can still find its way back on track as though I never intervened.

         Thank you for your reply! JoeG