Close down your desktop Twitter client, and shut off your instant messages. Change your Outlook preferences to only receive new messages when you click the send and receive button.
One way to do this in modern operating systems is to create a new user account on the same computer you use, but without access to all the software that keeps you distracted. That’s how I’ve set myself up—I have one user called “Work” and another called “Play.” This gives me a container that I can put my mindless web surfing habits into, and another kept free from distraction.
Turning these interruption technologies off isn’t enough, though. You’ll also need to arm your web browser with tools to help eliminate distractions while you’re trying to surf the Web. You can’t very well be expected to accomplish a Google search for valuable information when, if you’re a member of Google’s social network, Google+, there’s a bright red notification bar sitting there waiting to be clicked on.
Fortunately, there’s a browser extension for Google Chrome and Firefox to rid you of many of the Web’s distractions. On InformationDiet.com, I’ve catalogued many of them for you—but I’m certain I’m not going to be able to keep up with the ever-expanding universe of interruption technology. So here’s a simple rule of thumb to live by: if it has a number by it, eliminate it.
Let’s go ahead and get rid of those advertisements on the Web. Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer all have extensions that will do their best to block advertisements. Though they’re not perfect—and they’re very much an arms race against advertising-based content providers—they work well enough, and the overall reduction in exposure to advertising is probably good for your head and your bank account.
Lastly, let’s take care of your inbox. While, yes, you probably get a lot of important email, you probably get a lot of email that’s not important too. Software can fairly easily tell the differences between these two things, and save the stuff that’s not important for consumption later on.
Google has a tool for this in Gmail called Priority Inbox, but my personal favorite is called Sanebox.com. It works on most major email providers, and doesn’t just mark what email is important—it actually takes the email that’s not important, and dismisses it from your inbox into another folder. This way, the temptation isn’t even there. Don’t worry about missing anything. Close to the end of every working day, you’ll get an email digest of all the emails Sanebox put into your “Later” folder so that you can go back and check to see what you missed.
I remember when I did this for myself the first time. The only thing I can liken it to is the first time I put on a pair of prescription eyeglasses. I didn’t know my eyes and brain were straining to see things, but once the glasses were on, I could feel half the muscles in my face relax. It was a wondrous moment. It felt clean.
Sadly, it doesn’t last long. After about five minutes, curiosity will kick in, and you’ll start wondering what’s going on in the world. You might start to panic. “What if there’s an important email, or even a not so important but very banal and uninteresting email that’s waiting for you in your inbox?” your inner voice might say.
Let this inner voice yammer all it wants, and treat it as though a crazy person has been locked inside your head. After a few days of working with Sanebox, I found myself questioning my very own significance: I was getting so much less email that I began to assume people didn’t like me anymore. I found myself trawling through my Sanebox unimportant emails hoping that I’d missed some important email. My ego was wounded based on the sheer reduction in volume of email.
Now perhaps your ego isn’t as fragile as mine, but I think that’s the same voice that tells coke addicts to do more coke, and smokers to smoke more cigarettes. It’s at best the voice of compulsion and at worst the voice of addiction. You’re going to have to stop listening to it. It’s going to take hard work, and a lot of strength, but you can do it. You just have to be pragmatic about it and take it slow.
Training
Watching the juggler jog backwards past me on the 16th mile, or the man towing his fully grown but clearly incapacitated son behind him on the 24th, was enough for me to understand that I probably wasn’t going to ever be a world-class athlete. Though my wife looks like Indiana Jones trying to escape the giant boulder of “Clay”[81] behind her in our finish line photo, I’m still happy to have accomplished the feat.
I recommend that everyone in the world train for at least one marathon in their lives: it’s a testament to what your body can do if you train appropriately. It’s also a reminder that training takes a long time—training for that 26.2-mile race took six months—and a lot of small, slow steps to get there. For those of us that aren’t world-class runners, marathon training is, above all else, a test of will.
To train for my first marathon, I used Jeff Galloway’s “run-walk” method: it meant running for a certain length of time, then taking a shorter walk break. Over time, the goal is to lengthen the running time, and shorten the break time.
This method works for running for a few reasons. It allows you to go at your own pace and acknowledges that some people don’t train for marathons in order to win them, but rather to complete them. It allows you to expend your energy based on your level of exertion, rather than on distance. Finally, it creates a framework that is growable and tunable to you as you grow.
We’re going to use a similar method for strengthening your attention span. In order to do it, you’re first going to need a good timer. You can buy a runner’s stopwatch that has an interval timer if you want, or—if you want to be less annoying at work—you can download some software to do it on your desktop. Any old desktop timer will work, but interval timers work best. This will be the one notification you’re allowed to have.
Before you really get started with this technique, I want you to promise to be forgiving with yourself. Failure at this doesn’t mean you’re a bad person, or that somehow you’re not competent—it probably just means you bit off more than you could chew. Take it slow and find a pace for you. The thing that got my 240-pound self (after dropping 40 pounds during training) across a marathon finish line was this thought:
“I’m not going to win this marathon. My goal is to not come in last.”
Now, we’re going to start off slow. Try working in five minute intervals, with a one minute break in which you can do anything—check Facebook, deal with Twitter, or check your phone for text messages—anything you want, except check your email (we’ll get to that in a minute). In one hour, try working like this five times, then pause your timer. Get up and stretch or use the restroom for one to two minutes. Remember, sitting kills you.
Once back at your desk, do another three repetitions of the cycle. By this time, you should have about 10 more minutes left in your hour. Check your email, and respond to the things that you need to respond to.
Now sometimes this won’t work for you—you may want to pay more attention for longer spurts of time. That’s fine; this is a framework, not a set of laws. These rules needn’t apply all the time. But I will caution you—you’re training for endurance, not short bursts of speed. Usain Bolt might be the fastest man in the world at the 100-yard dash, but it’s unlikely that will do him much good in a marathon.
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I am so sorry for that pun. Remember, a healthy information diet is about having a sense of humor!