It’s important to take charge of your own day. Don’t let someone else be in control. We all have distractions coming at us from all different directions. There is a constant flow of e-mails, text messages, phone calls and phone messages that can interrupt our day. In fact, it can be a constant barrage.

It takes discipline to be in control of your own workday. Results-focused people have a daily discipline to avoid distractions that take them away from the important things they need to accomplish. It takes discipline to avoid a meeting that might otherwise be nice to attend but not really necessary for you to achieve your goals for the day. It also takes discipline to check your email only during certain times of the day and not be distracted or lose your focus with the endless text messages you may receive.

I like what Nido Qubein, the president of High Point University, said about discipline: “At the end of the day, you are left with one of two pains–the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. Pick one!” He’s so right. Without the discipline necessary to accomplish your goals, you will fall short on your performance and will later regret it.

In Chapter 8 of Managers, Can You Hear Me Now? I discuss numerous distractions that can keep us from achieving our daily goals – everything from emails and text messaging to the Internet and even personal attacks. I won’t reiterate here the many distractions we may face and how to handle them, but I would like to say something about distractions in general. Any distraction usually places an immediate demand on you, gaining your attention, and sometimes there is an immediate emotional response to it. This will happen minute by minute if you let it. There is almost always an urgency placed on each distraction, whether it is important or not. Remember, not all urgent distractions are important in relationship to your goals; In fact, I would say most are not. Sometimes, when you check on each distraction, the moment it occurs, it simply becomes a poor time-consuming habit.

It takes discipline to stay focused on your daily goals and leave distractions for certain times of the day. Many “urgent” distractions have nothing to do with what is really important to you. So, if you are going to be successful, it is essential to manage your day by managing the distractions that can otherwise control it — and you.

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