Since challenge three was all about productivity, today is all about what kills our focus. What makes you the least productive? What are you willing to sacrifice for focus?

Ironically, my favorite productivity tool is “the cloud” but my number one distraction is my iPhone. Yes, apps are cool and I can access all my space in the sky, but I don’t need to do it all from my phone. Even in the office my phone is a big distraction. I’m a social media geek, blogger, and professional athlete follower–I have a problem.

In 2014, I made a pretty bold attempt to separate from the life sucking force of Facebook mobile. That was the major hurdle for me [considering I was living in Denmark where they communicate strictly through Facebook]. More recently, I’ve assigned three social browsing times during the morning, lunch, and evening. They are about 15-30 min each and each focuses on different social sites. The rest of the time my phone has a requirement of being more than three feet away from me or locked in my drawer at work. No phones in pockets, no scrolling.

Minimizing something that we have become addicted to as a culture can be challenging, but putting away the phone allows me to be more engaging with the people I am around.  I focus on my work at the computer screen(s), and keep trucking away. This has helped me work efficiently on the job these last weeks and I’m noticing it is easier to switch my mind off when its break time and I finally do get to scroll for fun.