It's not only important in the chemical dependency counselor field, but in every aspect of life! Beating distractions can be a tough job when it seems everything is built around us to distract us! Here a few tips that could help some of out counseling certification students in their studies!
"1. Work less.
“I have begun to really believe that the less time you work, the less you waste,” Rosalie said. Distractions seem to strike when we’ve reached our limit. People tend to be productive for 4.5 hours a day, she said, but many of us have to stretch it to 8 or 9. “As a result, our minds invent distractions as a way out, and also as a way to seem productive even when we’re not.” That’s when you start browsing the Web, emailing, texting, tweeting and seeing what everyone is up to on Facebook.
2. Use a kitchen timer.
Artist Jolie Guillebeau gets distracted by everything from social media sites to Hulu to her own ideas. “Basically, anything that isn’t me putting the paint on the canvas can be a distraction.” Her most valuable distraction-taming tool is a kitchen timer.
When I’m ready to paint, I light a candle, set out my paints, clean my brushes, and set a little kitchen timer that sits next to my easel for 20 minutes. As long as the timer is ticking, then I stay in front of the painting. It’s easy when I run into a problem to allow distractions to take over, but with the timer, I keep my focus until the bell rings.
3. Wear earplugs.
Many times it’s not just the noise on our computers that distracts us; it’s also the noise outside the office. For illustrator and painter Carla Sonheim, earplugs help to dim everything from her husband’s music to the traffic.
4. Have a daily quota.
“I work from home and have five children, so I have a cornucopia of distractions for the choosing,” said Miranda Hersey, a writer and editor, creativity coach, and host of the blog Studio Mothers. She also does social media work. “I haven’t yet figured out how to update my clients’ Facebook accounts without reading my personal notifications.”
And she focuses her energy on client work, which leaves little time for her own projects. “I tell myself that I can’t do my own creative projects until all of my other work—particularly the work where other people are depending on me—is done.”
That’s where her quota comes in. Hersey commits to writing at least 500 words of fiction every day. “I use a spreadsheet to log my daily word count: In the past six months, I’ve written nearly 90,00 words. A lot of those words won’t ever see the light of day, but that doesn’t matter. My novel is emerging through this daily practice.”
5. “Front-load” your creative practice.
Hersey works on her creative projects before 6 a.m. This gives her mind the entire day to percolate as she performs other tasks. “Then you’re ready to hit the ground running the next morning.”
Overall, for Hersey, dealing with distractions isn’t about eliminating them. It’s about accomplishing the creative work first. “I’m just making sure that my creative work can’t get eaten up by Facebook and client work and triaging e-mail.”
Read more at Psych Central below
Source: http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2013/04/04/15-tips-for-taming-distracti...
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