A 100% completely distraction free environment is an impossible ideal, but that does not mean we should not strive for this. This is an environment that needs to be cultivated, just like a garden would. I have a neighbor who is meticulous about his front yard. When I walk past, I always feel a sense of reverence as I pass by. Everything is cut with precision, all barriers are precise and each plant is placed perfectly to highlight or accentuate a particular feature. Inevitably I will see him out there carefully working on one section. He is just as much a part of this landscape as the primary tree planted in the front of the lawn that draws your attention. He is always there pruning, sculpting, fertilizing, watering, and picking.
This man’s care and attention to his garden is the same level of rigour required to maintain a distraction free environment. Distractions are like weeds. If you do not have constant vigilance, you will wake up one day and find your environment full of distraction. I have thought about this many times. If you do nothing, then your life will start to introduce new distractions into your environment naturally. Before you know it the desk will be a mess again, the garage will have fell into disarray and and laundry will pile up. There is an unwritten law that human organization will naturally gravitate toward complexity, there is just nothing you can do about that. Additionally, things will naturally decay and break down, so there are two forces working against you to mess up your perfectly organized life.
I came up with an exercise today. A worthy challenge for you to consider. Take a digital picture of your workspace. Then print it out, in color if you can. Go to lunch or something and sit down with a highlighter and a pen. Examine the photograph. Ideally, you would have taken a picture with your setup they way that you normally work. Now take the highlighter and start to highlight all potential sources of distraction. Then take your pen and give the highlighted distraction a score from 1 – 5, with 5 being the most distracting. Spend a few minutes doing this and after you are done contemplate just what you might do in order to completely eliminate distraction from your workspace. What decisions would you have to make to clean this environment up and make it distraction free? I did this exercise today, and wow. My environment is full of distraction. It is everywhere. I had no idea, but now that I think about it, I already knew this. Whenever I sit down to work, there are hundreds of little things that draw my attention away from my primary work.
I highlighted a few for consideration:
- My phone. This take center stage in my working environment. I even have a nice setup so the phone can dock and charge and be readily accessible. It is right in front of my ready to….disrupt me and prevent me from focusing. After pondering my distraction free ambition – I am going to move my phone completely out of my office and charge it in another room. I should make phone calls when it is time for that, and not at any moments notice. Also, I should not be answering text messages or social notifications all day long.
- My bills. I have a neat organization section of my office for all pending bills and other correspondence. This is a major source of angst and constantly stares at me and mocks me all day long. I am constantly being nagged all day long about the stack of things I want to get done in that pile, but do not want to do them. This is the ultimate procrastination pile. I thought by making it front and center then I would so something about it, but instead it just annoys me all day long. What I end up doing is waiting until the end of the month and then doing it all in a agonizing 4 hour work session. So instead of stressing all the time, I will just accept that is what I do. So I am going to create a secret drop box for all these annoying things that I slide them into and when it fills up – time to schedule the 4 hour torture session.
- My bookcase. I think it looks cool to have all my favorite books right at my finger tips. What ends up happening is that I create a nice neat visual station of distraction. Perhaps it is time to rethink the collect everything bookcase and free up that space for something more powerful that I can use in my new concentration sessions.
- Workout stuff. Who am I kidding? I think that by having my Peloton and other gear in my office that I will get inspired and put in other some extra work out time in between calls. That never happens, but it does sit there and mock me and cause me to hang my head in frustration. I do my workouts on a set schedule, so why do I have all this distraction right in front of me all the time? Time to clean it all out.
- Clutter. My desk gathers clutter. Whenever I sit down to work, I think about this. So instead of reorganising and shifting the clutter from one location to another, I will just remove it all! Distraction free and no potential for gathering because there is nothing to gather!
- Projects. I embarked on this massive home improvement project a few months ago. Home automation version 2. It is working out great and it has been a lot of fun, but I used my office for this project and all the remaining elements that I have yet to clean up are still in here. New rule – no more doing projects in my office space!
Finally, my computer. I use a fixed desktop computer equipped with a bunch of cool things. Many monitors, cameras, microphones, sound system, etc. A great workstation for doing computer work, production work and general task management. However, it is a distraction demon. Many monitors all with hundreds of applications, chrome tabs and various things screaming at me to do work. Multiple inboxes all wanting attention. Social feeds as well. This is a stress and anxiety magnet. When I do want to sit down and do quality work, or even have a quality phone conversation, I am unable to because there is just too much eye candy. So I put some thought into this. I think I am going to create a separate desk in my office just for thinking time, and single task work. For example, when I am writing. I do not need anything else, I just need something to type with. A fancy monitor is not required, I just need a device to collect my thoughts. When I am on conference calls or talking to people, I do not need this distraction machine in front of me. I need a place where I can have a meaningful conversation. The workstation setup is not conducive for these types of discussions. Also, I need a place to just think. Sitting at my desk is a disaster for this type of activity, it just never happens. My office setup has no place where this can occur. Time to rethink my office space. Instead of den of the task master, it needs to be command central for the zen master.
A distraction-free environment may be impossible to achieve perfectly, but the effort to cultivate one is invaluable. Just as my neighbor tirelessly tends to his immaculate garden, we must commit to constant vigilance in pruning distractions from our lives. The exercise of analyzing and scoring distractions revealed a harsh truth: we often enable the chaos that disrupts our focus.
But awareness is the first step to change. With clear intent, I am reimagining my workspace—not as a productivity battlefield cluttered with distractions, but as a sanctuary for focus and creativity. Each change, from moving my phone to a different room to creating a dedicated space for deep work, is a step toward reclaiming my concentration.
The journey to focus is ongoing, not a destination. It requires persistence, adaptability, and the courage to re-evaluate what truly supports your goals. Let your workspace reflect your priorities, and let each small step clear the path for greater clarity and purpose. After all, a well-tended environment is the foundation for a well-tended mind.
