Distraction 101

The gravitational pull of the Internet and the call of the nearest party can make it insidiously difficult to get things done. Helpfully, researchers are studying the behaviors of people who manage these obstacles successfully on the way to the bottom of the checklist.

Find your happy place. People with high levels of self-control steer clear of tempting diversions rather than risk a last-minute slip up, research suggests. “You can nip a bad impulse in the bud by intervening earlier rather than later,” says Angela Duckworth, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania who studies goal achievement.

Tip: Relocate to a café, the quiet corner of a library, the front of class—places that limit temptation and encourage focus.

Shield yourself. You can’t always choose your surroundings, and if you’re working on a computer, a world of distraction is just a click away. But you can still make strategic moves. A study led by doctoral student Michael Ent at Florida State University found that people who scored high on a self-control survey were more likely than others to choose a visually plain online test over one with appealing (but distracting) visuals.

Tip: Close extra programs and chat windows, turn off your phone, pop in earplugs (or earbuds), shut the door.

Choose your buddies wisely. Social activity is often distracting, but it can also foster persistence and productivity. A paper in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin suggests that effective self-regulators engage in “social positioning,” showing a stronger preference for interacting with people who can help them pursue their goals.

Tip: Set aside time to work and talk shop with conscientious colleagues.

Think about yourself in the future. “Your planning horizon has to be longer than 97 milliseconds,” says Daniel Bartels, a researcher at the University of Chicago. Wise decision-makers consider both the future costs of their actions and the person who will be paying for them, he says. In experiments, imagining one’s future self as an extension of one’s present self is associated with forward-thinking choices.

Tip: Make lists of a) what you give up in the future by slacking off now, and b) key parts of you that will remain the same in a year or more.

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