Death by 1,000 cuts.

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Death by a thousand cuts. This is an ancient method of torture. Meaning someone would be killed with as many cuts as possible without killing the person. This applies to our life but not in a way nearly as gruesome. The term suites the principle perfectly, how so?

The term is used to describe the many distractions people face in their life. All of these minor distractions do not seem like much but when they add up they end up making or breaking you. These “cuts” can end up being anything. For example, a big one in our generation today is notifications from social media. You get the notification from Snapchat, Instagram or Facebook. The list goes on. These pull you from your main task at hand and break the focus. Humans take an average of thirty minutes to peak focus. Every time you check that notification you disturb your own work ethic. These “cuts” can be anything to pull you from your goal or task. It could be a person, email, Netflix, a pet, eating or even something bugging you in the room. All of these can destroy productivity.

What is the solution to the problem that plagues so many people? It is relatively easy, all you need to do is turn off all those notifications that aren’t important. It needs to be an absolute minimum to avoid distractions. For example, you might want your personal email as long as it doesn’t have a load of junk in there. Also perhaps messaging if you also don’t have a load of people texting you on there. I personally only keep those on as my email is important for my banking and my messages are important so my loved ones and my job can contact me. However, nobody else has my email or my number. You do not need your phone buzzing at every second distracting you and breaking your focus/ability to get things done.

The photo below: Person being cut represents your productivity. The people cutting represents all your distractions.