We saw an article about distractions and success by The Wall Street Journal. A new study shows that students with attention-deficit disorder achieve more.

The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Memphis and the University of Michigan. Students with ADD were more likely to have won a prize at an art show or a science fair.

They were higher achievers across the board.

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Yes, according to another study by researchers at the University of Toronto and Harvard University. They gave students a short test and measured their ability to filter out background noise – like a nearby conversation or an air conditioning running.

The students who struggled to ignore the noise were more likely to be “eminent creative achievers” based on their previous performances.

Daydreamers are more creative

The article also cites research that shows a link between daydreaming and creativity. So instead of getting your head out of the clouds, maybe you should get your head into them!

Entrepreneurs ride an emotional roller coaster. And the highs are higher and the lows are lower. It’s part of the game. Daydreaming may help.

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When I’m feeling low or I’m feeling a great deal of stress – which often come in one crushing package – I take time to daydream. Sometimes I do it at my computer, but most of the time I rely on the basic tools of pen and paper. As I do a mind dump, I can feel the energy coming back to me. I get that spark of creativity. I begin seeing solutions. It really helps.

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Embrace distractions

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I don’t know if it’s my background as a radio DJ – talk about a business with a lot of things going on all at once – I can’t work without background noise. Quiet is a distraction to me!

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BIGG success is life on your own terms. If distractions help you, by all means, get distracted!

Other people are always telling us to focus. Our parents did it. Our teachers did too. Bosses expect it as well.

But sometimes, less structure may lead to better results. Do what works for you.

When you’re trying to think creatively, bring out the distractions! It leads to BIGG success!

Do you work better with distractions?

Thanks so much for spending some time with us today. Until next time, here’s to your BIGG success!

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‘Cause they’ve got personality … walk!

Personality … talk!

Personality … smile!

Well you get the idea! So ends our tribute to Lloyd Price and the song You’ve Got Personality. Back to our regularly scheduled program …

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You know they could be a bigg success, but they just can’t stay focused. They start a project but then something else captures their attention. Kind of like the interruption we just had with the song.

Bright, shiny objects

Liz Strauss calls it Shiny Object Syndrome. It’s easy to succumb to bright, shiny objects. We must overcome these distractions if we want to reach bigg success and live our lives on our own terms.

It begins by creating a vivid image of what you want your life to be. With this long-term vision in mind, you’re ready to break it up step-by-step and set a due date for each step.

That’s called a milestone. It’s our exclusive focus day-to-day. We develop a plan to get to the next milestone. It’s helpful to break that milestone down into terms – a quarter or a month.

Then begin each week by thinking about what you need to accomplish this week to reach your goal for the month. Now that helps you determine what’s most important to get done each day of this week.

Then all you have to do is everything you can every single day to get there!

Today is all that matters

It begins with a prioritized list – what must I do today to hit my goal this week?

By having this focus, it keeps us from being distracted by those bright, shiny objects. Here’s how we do it:

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I love spreadsheets so that’s what I use. I divide my tasks every day by priority – “A priorities” are those things I must do, “B” are what I need to do, and “C” are things I want to do. Then I order the tasks within the categories. So the first thing I work on is my “A1” item.

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Sounds like a steak sauce, George! I like the old-fashioned pen and paper. For me, it works better to write out everything on a legal pad. Then every day, I pull off the most important things I have to do from that paper and put it on a sticky note. I have everything on my main list but I put the most important things front and center. Another thing that I really like about this is getting to crumble up those sticky notes when I’ve finished these important tasks.

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I’m glad you pointed that out, Mary-Lynn. I highlight each item in my spreadsheet as I complete it for the same reason. As the day goes on and I see more and more lines highlighted, I get a tangible sense of accomplishment.

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Avoid bright, shiny objects so you can focus on the bigg prize. Start with your vision of what life on your own terms means to you. Then focus today on what’s most important to get there.

Doing the right things leads to bigg success!

How do you keep yourself on task?

Share that with us by leaving a comment below, calling us at 888.455.BIGG or sending us an e-mail at bigginfo@biggsuccess.com.

Thank you for sharing your time with us today.

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Next time, we’ll discuss how opportunity is like a flower. Please join us! Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

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A study by Virginia Tech Transportation Institute and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that about 80 percent of all crashes and 65 percent of all near-crashes involved someone who was distracted within three seconds of the event. 

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I plead guilty as charged. I have to admit to using my car as a roaming second office. I store up phone messages and return calls while I’m on the road. .

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I’m in the car on a busy, busy day with all these things rolling through my mind. That’s one of the distractions that we often don’t take into account. I zone out … I don’t really pay attention like I should. I’m in my own world. .

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Psychologists have identified four types of distractions, according to Grohol’s article.

• Visual … checking out an accident or looking at a billboard

• Audible … cell phone calls, the radio, or another person talking

• Physical … eating, flipping the dial, shuffling your iPod, or putting on make-up

• Cognitive … daydreaming, thinking about other things in your life

Of course, a lot of distractions are multi-faceted. For example, talking on your cell phone includes three of these – audible, physical, and cognitive.

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I really do think it saves time. We have a friend who consults with us. He talks to us when he’s on his hour-and-a-half commute home. I can understand why you would use your phone when you have that long drive.

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I won’t dispute that at all, but I now realize more than ever that I have to recognize the odds of something happening and take measures to try to minimize the distractions.

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Changes we plan to make

• Leave earlier. When we have a lengthy trip, we usually don’t give ourselves the time to stop and eat. We gas, grab, and go … eating on the road. Leaving earlier will allow us time to stop and eat. We’ll probably eat healthier, too!

• Ignore the phone. Granted, that’s a hard thing to do. So we’re going to turn our ringers off when we’re only going to be in the car for a short time.

• Change our greetings. If we’re expecting an important call, we’ll change the greeting to let them know when we will be checking our messages.

• Pull over (if we can). For those rare situations where we have to take the call, we’ll stop driving momentarily.

What's your biggest distraction while driving? 

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A study at UCLA asked participants to sort index cards with various shapes on them. The researchers divided the participants into two groups:

• Group 1 sorted their cards with no distractions.

• Group 2 sorted their cards while listening to, and counting beeps.

The researchers found that the two groups sorted equally well. However, the first group remembered what they sorted better than the second group.

So, something suffers when we multi-task. Doesn’t common sense tell us the same thing?

So why do we all try to do so many things at once?
There are many reasons – because we think we can, we get distracted, we’re bored, maybe we’re really just procrastinating, or perhaps we think it’s a competitive advantage.

The problem is … it’s not productive, because we want to be effective AND efficient.

Multi-tasking can be costly
Researchers at the University of Michigan found that, even with the simplest of tasks, it takes time to mentally switch from one to the other. It may only take a second for your brain to catch up, which doesn’t sound like much. But how many times do we do this in a day? And that’s for the simplest of tasks – more complex tasks can take up to a minute!

Not to mention that, multi-tasking requires us to FOCUS on concentrating rather than ACTUALLY concentrating. It also boosts stress hormones in our brain. So, in the short run, we get less done. In the long run, it’s bad for us.

So are these studies saying that we should NEVER multi-task?

You’ll be happy to know that you can walk and chew gum at the same time, because you’re performing two tasks that have become automatic. You don’t have to think about it anymore!

Many people may argue that checking their e-mail or text messages has become second nature.

But there’s a bigg difference – there’s a second human being in the equation. For the communication to be effective, you have to understand what they said, and what they left unsaid. Then, and only then, can you convey an effective return message.

In other words, you have to THINK!

3 tips to break the addiction

• Admit that it’s a problem.
  If you don’t see it as a problem, you can’t solve it. This is the first step.

• Out of sight, out of mind.
  Keep one thing in front of you. Everything else should be filed away. If you don’t see it, you won’t be tempted. Reward yourself with something you enjoy AFTER you complete each task.

• A time for everything, everything in its time
  What’s most important right now, based on the future you’ve visualized? Work exclusively on what you NEED to accomplish to reach the top of your stairway to success. 

Tell us what you think about multi-tasking! Share your bigg challenges! Offer your bigg solutions! Leave us a Comment below!

Our bigg quote today is actually a definition. No one claims it, perhaps for a reason ….

So make sure you stay focused so you only screw up one thing at a time!

Next time, we’ll share an ancient Chinese secret to solve all of your problems. You’ll be amazed at how simple it is! Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

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