In the world we live in, distraction is everywhere. It feels like you can’t go 10 minutes without some new distraction entering your life. This continuous distraction has begun to bleed into many people’s work life as well. Things like open offices and instant messaging are commonplace at many workplaces today, despite how much they actually hamper your work. This is bad for most careers, but it’s especially bad in regard to design.

Design is a process that has many steps and takes a large amount of time and focus. By adding in the constant distractions prominent in today’s work environment, it makes a good, meaningful design seem almost impossible. The simple solution would be to pull away from these distractions, but that in itself is extremely difficult. These smartphones are addicting and it’s hard to pull away from them. It’s nearly as simple as just stopping, you need a process to slowly ween yourself off it.

Beyond the smartphone, it’s important to understand your distractions. You need to know what is killing your focus and how. By understanding this, it makes it easier to eliminate said distractions. By eliminating these distractions, not only will your design work improve, but the mental and physical benefits to a less distracted life will slowly bleed into other aspects of your life, creating a cycle of positive reinforcement that continuously grows.