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I work less when I’m distracted. I get fewer things done, I
feel a little bit out of balance, and I generally skip what I know is good
for me (eating right, drinking water, working out, etc.). I recently
re-modeled my home office. While I’m in Ojai, I work there; it’s complete
with my own little library, wireless Internet access, my files, etc., etc.
Well, as an experiment, I set up another complete work-station. There’s no
computer there, no file drawers, no supplies. Just a large flat surface,
and a great work light standing on the desk. I have a few of the supplies I
need to do work, but none of the reference materials that might get in my
way. I’m using that space as a my “work-session” area. For 20-30 minutes, I
grab something - a stack of articles to go through, magazines to read, an
article to draft, a speech to edit - and work for a certain amount of time.
Of course, I can’t work here all day - - I’d be up and down, up and down
going for tools or putting things away. In a seminar I attended recently, I
was challenged to objectify what distracts me and experiment with ways to
decrease those distractions. (Incedentally, we interrupt ourselves between
6-10 times…per minute - these are thoughts about what we’re not doing,
while we are doing something.) Since I’ve been working with fewer
distractions, I’ve gotten more done in shorter periods of time than before.
In fact, I’m reading a book (by Alan Lakein) and just finished a chapter
that REminded me I must incorporate blocks of thinking time in between the
doing time that makes up most of the day….

Interesting stuff. I do a lot of the same, doing most of my work at
Chipotle because there’s just way too much else to do (or nap) when I’m at
home. But even here, I literally carry some distractions with me. For
example, I listen to podcasts (mostly Air America now that the Gillmor Gang
and Engadget have gone mysteriously “off the air”) while I’m commuting to
“work” and while I’m eating, and sometimes it’s a struggle to turn the
podcast off and get to work. I can’t write and listen to Janeanne Garofalo
at the same time, and often I don’t start writing when I should.

I’m intrigued by the austere workspace Jason talks about, but I can’t
figure out how that would translate to someone like me that keeps an entire
digital reference libary and entertainment center with him and which uses
the same system for actually working.

How do you avoid distractions?