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Finish what you started

Jack Davies@whatjackhasmade

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Who is this guy ?

I N T R O D U C I N G . . .

I'm Jack Davies, a young and enthusiastic designer born

and raised in Swansea, but currently situated in

Southampton!

I work at Moov2 as Junior Web Designer but I also work

on other creative projects.

L O O K AT T H I S C H U M P

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What to expect

WHY TO CARE ABOUT THIS TALK

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Two chaptersTelling you why you don’t finish your goals

So you’ve set yourself goals or tasks in the past and

haven’t made them. You know that you didn’t

complete them, but we’ll look at more specifically why.

Giving you effective tips on finishing your goals

After giving you the lowdown on how to avoid common

pitfalls or distractions, I’ll then present some methods

I’ve learnt of maintaining focus on your goal.

TA B L E O R S L I D E O F C O N T E N T S ?

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Why you don’t finishIf I had a dollar for every time I got distracted, I wish I had some ice cream.

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QuestionnaireT H E Q U E S T I O N

What do you find distracts you when working on a single task?

(e.g. Testing a program and being distracted by…)

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The results

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7 Deadly sinsWAT C H O U T F O R T H E S E G U Y S !

Mobile Notifications

Other People

Spam / Annoying Emails

Chrome Push Notifications

Slack / Instant Messaging

Unwanted Reminders

Desktop Notifications

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How to avoid distractionsOR AT LEAST TRY

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For most of us, our home desktop machines are a great

tool for achieving goals or completing tasks. If I wanted to

create a PowerPoint likes this one for example, I will need

to use the computer.

However a computer can be very distracting, even before

you open up your browser or another piece of software.

This is largely due to desktop notifications. Next time you

jump onto your machine, experiment with the do not

disturb or quiet hour settings. This will minify the how

distracted you will become.

Desktop notifications

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Another great tip for desktop or laptop users is to install

and use ‘RescueTime’. Rescue time is a google chrome

extension and desktop application which will monitor

what programs, websites, etc. that you have been using

and how long for.

RescueTime

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The great thing about ‘RescueTime’ is the ability to

generate monthly, weekly, daily and even hourly reports

of how you are spending your time. You can then identify

what un-useful applications you’ve been spending time

on or websites that you should think about avoiding.

RescueTime (Extended)

Source: https://www.rescuetime.com/

Source: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/rescuetime-for-chrome-chr/bdakmnplckeopfghnlpocafcepegjeap

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Another great Google Chrome extension that I

recommend is StayFocusd. I’ve found that my past

experiences with the extension have been strict.

However after using RescueTime for a week or two, you

will be able to gauge the settings that you should use for

StayFocusd. Both extensions are powerful on their own,

but together they are a strong killer for procrastination.

StayFocusd

Source: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stayfocusd/laankejkbhbdhmipfmgcngdelahlfoji?hl=en

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So you’ve muffled the annoying sounds of your computer

screaming notifications at you, and you’ve minimized

using your time and focus on websites that provide little

to no value.

Now your phone is mimicking your desktop and is still

trying to pull through highlighted tweets or notifications

that you’ve walked for 12 minutes. Fortunately, similar to

desktop operating systems, both Android and iOS systems

have do not disturb settings that can be applied globally

or to an individual application.

Mobile notifications

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99% of the time it takes at most 5 seconds to identify an

unwanted email by skimming the subject and body,

followed by deleting it.

Where as it usually takes a good 20+ seconds to find the

unsubscribe button and prevent anymore emails arriving

from the sender.

In most cases you will opt for the quicker option but if you

have to delete 10 emails in the future, over the course of

a year, you’ve lost 40 seconds of your time for not

investing in unsubscribing!

Unsubscribe from emails

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Messaging service (e.g. Slack)

Source: https://medium.com/@mishmosh/the-minimalist-s-guide-to-distraction-free-slack-cc901ae59d50

Slack is a helpful communication application that can be a great tool

for teams to work with. Although sometimes it may distract you

inside or outside of work.

“There is no need of my work apps being on all my devices. I decided

to delete it all. The only thing that can come to my phone that is

work related is a downtime alert.” - Wiktor Mociun

Michelle Lee wrote a great article with 4 tips on working with slack -

• Sound off

• @mentions and keywords only

• Do not disturb hours

• Mute this channel (When applicable)

Source: https://medium.com/planet-arkency/3-easy-tricks-to-be-less-distracted-when-using-slack-a22b7791b9a6

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It’s inevitable that you will be distracted by other people

at one time or another when you are attempting to

achieve your goal.

I share a home with 7 other students who at times can be

a rowdy bunch, especially when they’re coming home

drunk and want to play video games with me.

However, most of my friends and family understand that I

am very driven and passionate about my work. Simply

setting a schedule of work for yourself and explaining it to

them will work wonders, as they will be understanding.

Other people

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Although Google Chrome is by my favourite web browser,

it can be very distracting with push notifications. These

notifications pop up from a number of websites, including

YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

Fortunately you have the option to completely disable

notifications from all websites or disable specific

notifications.

Google chrome notifications

Source: https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/3220216?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=en

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Similar to unwanted emails, you may have subscribed to

reminders that you no longer want.

If you still receive reminders that aren’t applicable or

useful to you anymore, remove them today.

Unwanted reminders

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Tips on how to finishFound ice cream, and had ice cream. Now it’s time to get some work done!

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You’ll often find that you aren’t alone when it comes to

becoming distracted or sidetracked. Reach out to friends

and family and see if you can form a completion buddy.

You can check in on them to make sure they are

accomplishing goals and vise versa. I run an event which

focuses around this simple idea with Moov2.

Engage with others

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When you are at home relaxing or preparing for hosting a

gathering of guests, organizing your music is important

and you may want to flick between songs.

However, when working on a task it is recommended that

you either use a set playlist, listen to an album or listen to

the radio.

I personally find that listening to lo-fi hip-hop beats on

hour loops do the trick for me. The music is almost

hypnotic and allows me to feel a rhythm whilst not having

it become my primary focus.

Don’t micromanage music

Source: https://youtu.be/Ybp9NsmTA2o?list=PLYA0mw5E_QfvbqzgzNcajrisj02vTVtIV

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Often, using ambient sounds alone or alongside your

music playlist can help relax an individual.

I usually use the sounds of rain, thunder and a fireplace to

add background noise to an otherwise flawless song.

There are many studies that show using background

sounds can help when studying and relaxing.

Ambient sounds

Source: http://asoftmurmur.com/

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Often when we make commitments we see it is an

optional task. We weigh up the option of doing the task

or watching Netflix.

Imagine you had the same mindset as that when you had

a work meeting. I could go and meet with the client or I

could watch Netflix.

Doesn’t have the same feeling to it, does it? Schedule a

meeting with yourself, make it so you have the same work

mindset and that you never miss an appointment.

Schedule a meeting with yourself.

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Whenever I used to get an idea for a project, I’d dream

big. I’d throw in so many ideas to a project scope, I never

knew where to begin.

Start small, what’s the single, smallest checkpoint you

need this project to reach to count it as a success. Work

toward it and focus.

Say you wanted to start a YouTube series, focus solely on

getting the video done. Don’t worry about branding just

yet. Just start small.

Start small

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If you have scheduled to work for 30 minutes at 6pm –

6.30pm every other day. You should know what you steps

are going to be, before the session begins.

A great way of doing this is to plan what you are going to

do in a following session, at the end of your current

session.

If you find you didn’t reach your goal for that session then

plan to complete in your next.

Plan at the end

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Email

jackdavieswork@hotmail.co.uk

Twitter

@whatjackhasmade

WhatJackHasMade

Feel free to view any of my work on my website www.whatjackhasmade.co.uk

Get in Touch.