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The Fight Against
Distraction
So many of us fight distraction every day, without really examining
what’s distracting us, and why.
According to Daniel Goleman, author of Focus: The Hidden Power of
Excellence, there are two kinds of distraction: sensory, and emotional.
Sensory distractions are the things happening around us: colleagues
talking, phones ringing, people moving around us, music playing.
Emotional distractions are the thoughts that make our attention drift
from what we’re doing: remembering a phone call or email you need to
return, thinking about a meeting coming up later today, worrying about
a friend who’s unwell.
Goleman says emotional, or internal, distractions are hard to ignore
because our brains won’t let us ignore something if we’ve left it half-
finished. Our brains want us to make a plan to tackle things that are
important to us, so if we leave something unfinished it keeps popping
up and distracting us.
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