When too many distractions get in the way

For some of us there are times that there are just too many distractions that get in the way of getting what you want completed. I know that I have challenges sometimes when everything around me seems to be a distraction and I cannot regain a focus on what I would like to try and get accomplished. It doesn’t matter if it is work related or not there are times that distractions just seem to make it difficult to focus on anything.

Trying to limit the number of things that are getting in the way of accomplishing what you want or need to accomplish can be difficult. If you have ways of turning off the distractions that would be good because that can help you regain that focus. Here are some distractions you might want to turn off:

• Music
• Email notifications
• Social media

Here are some distractions that you might have to handle differently:

• Phone calls
• People interrupting you
• Other sounds around you

When things just seem to get overwhelming and you lose your focus here are some ideas on how to manage those distractions and help you regain your focus:

• Looking out the window and not really focusing on anything.
• Putting in earplugs to limit the sounds around you.
• Finding something you can look at that isn’t too repetitive or too distractions (I watch the Port of Miami on YouTube as my way to help regain my focus).
• Get into a location that helps you focus (different room or entirely different location).
• Do something different for a few minutes to get away from the immediate task.
• Allow yourself time to just breath and get the focus back.
• Change how you make the notes, maybe change from computer to tablet or to paper as that might help you get away from the distraction.
• Change up your routine so you aren’t doing the same thing at the same time everyday.

Something that I find that helps me regain my focus sometimes is just to allow ideas to just happen and capture them in point form, or whatever way helps. When you are capturing the ideas don’t try and edit the thoughts, just allow them to happen, as you can edit them later. We also must know that there are times that no matter what we try and do it isn’t going to help at all. Another thing we have to realize is that something that works today may not work tomorrow to help you regain your focus so you will have to try different things.

We all deal with distractions and sometimes they don’t seem to be an issue and then there are going to be times when they are an issue, and we must learn how to deal with them in different ways. I know that some of the ideas that I have recorded aren’t going to help everyone, but these are some of the ideas that I have found work for me, so I wanted to get them down.

If you have any other ideas of how you regain your focus after dealing with distractions, please comment what works for you as I would be interested in hearing different ideas.

Your keys should be kept out of sight

Recently on Facebook was someone asking where they could get keys cut as they needed an extra set. That is a normal request because not everyone knows where you can get that done. People were giving lots of great suggestions and then I saw a comment that made me very concerned.

If you send me a photo of both sides of your key, I will let you know if I can cut it for you.

The reason I was so concerned about this is this is a major issue because someone with a 3D printer and a photo of a key could make a copy of the key very easily. Of course, as soon as I saw this comment, I sent a private message to the individual asking where to get keys cut to not send a photo of her keys to anyone especially someone you don’t know.

It has been shown that from a picture people (bad actors) can make copies of keys and the type of keys that can be copied very easily are the ones that use the standard blanks. It is always important to make sure that you don’t have your keys visible for someone to take a photo of them.

There are so many times that I have seen people either wearing their keys or a fob on their bag or their belt, and I think they are calling for someone to take a picture of their keys. We have also seen pictures of a security office with a window that showed all the keys that they needed to use and of course that meant the people (bad actors) could copy those keys without any problem. So, remember when you are out in public or asked to provide a picture of your keys it isn’t a good idea because that person that is right near you might not be acting in your interest but in theirs.

Seeming invisible

Lately there have been times that I have felt that I am invisible and people around me don’t seem to see that I am around. This has happened quite a few times and I am going to be highlighting a couple of these instances to show that I have been around but just not seen.

1. I opened the door at a fast food restaurant to enter.
1. The result of this was the person that was going to exit thought that the door automatically opened, so that they could leave, and they didn’t see that I was entering. I did let them know that I had opened the door for me and they just needed to wait.
2. Attending a monthly IT event and seeming invisible to someone saying hello to my business partner.
1. This has happened a number of times and this individual will walk over and reach past me, invading my person space, to shake hands with my business partner. This individual would say “Hello Sir” and doesn’t understand how he is disrespecting me.
2. I have finally called this individual out because this has happened a number of times and he needed to leave that saying “Hello Sir” doesn’t acknowledge me at all. His comment was, I said “Hello Sir” so I was saying hello to everyone.
3. Working a booth at an IT Security conference.
1. Here is another instance when I have found that I have been invisible to an individual even when there are four of us working at the booth at the same time. I must say that the individual that I am talking about is the same individual that attends a monthly and does see me. This time there were four of us at the booth and he made sure that he shook hands with the other three individuals of the booth but avoided even acknowledging me. I was standing between two of the gentlemen that were working the booth with me. One of the gentlemen noticed how I was avoided and asked why that was. My only reply was, I am not certain but maybe it’s because I’m female.

Something that I have noticed over the last little while is it depending on the individuals that you are dealing with. I have found that some individuals will acknowledge me without any issues at all and then there are the few that seem to think I don’t deserve to be respected. When you are at events or even out in public remember that everyone should be treated with the same respect.

Challenges in life

There are going to be times when things just don’t seem to go according to plan and you have to accept that things are going to be different. In our case what happened was a skin infection which changed how we handled a bunch of things.

 Of course, the skin infection came out of the blue and it resulted in three separate visits to emergency to get antibiotic injections to get the infection under control. It wasn’t just the injections it was also the various blood tests as well as a blood culture test and an ultrasound to make sure that everything was ok.

 One of the things that we weren’t prepared for was to be given a note after our first visit that we could show the triage nurse that would move things along a little faster. What the note basically said was when we got into one of the departments was we needed the doctor to look at his leg and then order the antibiotic injection so that we didn’t have to wait as long as we did the first day. Of course, the first day was a lot of test sot see if they could figure out what was happening and that didn’t bother either of us because it was normal to see what was happening. The second day was very quiet because we got into one of the emergency sections and the leg was checked out and then the antibiotic injection was given, and we were sent home.

The third injection day was when it took a bit longer and that is because the doctor decided it was time to do a few more tests to see if anything had changed. The first test was some more blood work to see if things improved and the results were the infection had improved, which was good. The other test was an ultrasound to ensure there wasn’t a blood clot and that also came back clear which was also a good sign.

Summary:

There was a skin infection which meant that there was going to be the three antibiotic injections followed by 7 days of antibiotics before going back to the family physician for another evaluation. The result was another 7 days of antibiotics and hopefully things clear up after this but only time will tell. What this basically means is that we have to try and monitor the infection the best we can and if it gets worst we need to go back to either emergency or the doctor.

When a pen colour/thickness doesn't work

This last little while I have been working on getting a to-do list written out in a journal book and I figured it didn’t matter what colour pen I used. Just moving  the list forward that was what was most important. Well, I found out that the colour of pen that I was using to write out my list did make a big difference. 

What happened was when I decided to start to rewrite my to-do list, because it has been a month since I did that I just simply grabbed a pen which I thought was similar to the one that I had been using to write out my list. I found it was black instead of blue and I figured it wouldn’t make a difference. Well, that is when things started to not go as well as I had hoped.

What I didn’t realized is that the colour of the ink does seem to make a difference, but I can’t explain what it is. It would be nice if I could figure out why I hated the black pen. It could be because it is a medium point and most of the time, I am either using a fine or a .38-point pen, so they are a lot finer than the one that I was using. What I did find was those letters seemed to be overwhelming me, and I just couldn’t seem to see what I was writing, the words just seem to take up far too much of the page and that didn’t help at all.

It ended up that I decided to step back and figure out what colour pen and what finest I wanted to work with, and I finally figured out that I needed to use a blue pen with a .25 point and that made me happy. I wasn’t sure if it was going to work but I ended up testing a bunch of pens and this was the pen that made me the happiest so that is what we went with.

I didn’t think a pen colour or thickness was going to make such a difference but what I did realize is that I need to use the pens that make me the happiest. Even if I think a pen is ok for a while, what pen do I want to use most of the time? I know that I am one of those that like the very fine pens and I am going to go back to using just those pens for most of the stuff that I do. Those pens make me happy and that is what is most important.

 

Postal Strike

Edit: This post was written during one of our many postal strikes we have had.

Here we are in a middle of a postal strike and there are going to be a lot of challenges that we all need to deal with. There are so many challenges that we need to deal with, and it will depend on who you are, what your requirements are with regards to the postal system 

Here are some of the challenges that everyone is dealing with:

• Senor citizen – if you are someone that receives either CPP or OAS cheque through the mail you will continue to receive these cheques because the government has made a progress that these cheques will continue to flow.
• Credit card statements – if you receive your credit card statements through the mail you will have to figure out how to get them electrically because they are not going to be mailed to you while the postal workers are on strike.
• New credit cards – here it is a challenge that I am not certain how it is going to be handled because there are a lot of individuals whose credit card is up for renewal, but we are uncertain how or when we will be receiving our new credit card.
• Parcels in the process – if you have a parcel that was shipped prior to the strike the parcel is currently sitting at a facility waiting to be released once the strike is over.
• I want to order something – here is a challenge that some of us are going to have to deal with and that is wanting to order something but knowing that the parcel isn’t going to be shipped for a while.

Yes, it can be a challenge when we are all dealing with a postal strike and we have to deal with a bunch of issues that might not make us happy. We might want something quickly and we have to decide if we are willing to pay the additional cost to have it delivered through courier or not. Of course, there are going to be the challenges and additional costs that we might have to incur but we need to figure out is the cost worth it or can I just wait and order it later once this issue has been resolved.

I understand that the Canada postal system is on strike because there are issues that they have issues with, but I also must say that we need a postal system that works within Canada and if it isn’t what you had in the past but something that will work in the future we need to accept the new normal. For me if I need to go a short distance to pick up my mail versus having at home delivery, I am willing to accept that. I know that there are a lot of individuals that don't want this change but when you look at a lot of the newer developments, they have to walk to a community box to pick up their mail and that is the normal for them.

Our postal strike is about the community boxes versus at home delivery and maybe what we need to see is that community boxes is what we need to keep our postal system viable. For a lot of us that are use to being able to go our own persona mailbox (at home) to get our mail is what we dealt with in the past but maybe just going out for a bit a bit of stroll to check our box is going to become our norm. I don’t mind that new option because it means that I will figure out what I get in the mail and I can get some exercise when I need to go to that box.

When juggling cross stitch projects doesn't work

I have been watching a lot of people that say that they would like to get some progress on projects, but then they bounce between multiple projects and then get frustrated that they don’t seem to be making the progress that they would like to get done. They are bouncing between the multiple projects during a week which given everything else in life, it is hard to see any progress on anything this way.

Something that I have found that doesn’t work for me is bouncing between multiple projects either daily or even weekly, because I don’t seem to see any progress on anything and that doesn’t make me happy. Sure, I might be able to get a couple of hundred stitches in a project but when I am bouncing over multiple projects in a week, when I look at the progress for the week, I don’t see much progress at all. 

What I have found is if I can focus on a project for even multiple days at a time or better yet a week at a time, I an see some good progress on the piece. One of the things that I have figured out is that each day of the week I will have a various amount of time to do the stitching so I can’t say I will get the same number of stitches completed each day. A workday of stitching versus a weekend day of stitching without obligations can really vary with the amount of time I can work on a project.

It is amazing how many people have said that they don’t seem to see a lot of progress on their stitching projects and all I can say is instead of bouncing around so much maybe spend a week working on a project and see what progress you are able to make.

I understand that depending on the project the progress from week to week isn’t going to be the same. I know that for me when I pick up a project for a week, I can quite often get just over 1,500 to around 2,000 stitches completed for the week, and I can see some good progress on the project. This is what makes me happy and I am seeing progress on a fewer number of projects.

So, if you are not seeing progress on the projects that you are working on maybe look at how often you are changing what you are working on. If you don’t give a cross stitch project enough time to even see some progress, you aren’t going to feel good after a week when you sit back and say what did I work on this week and what progress did I make on my projects.