The Hidden Cost of Distractions: How You're Losing 6-Figure Sums Without Realizing It (And How to Stop It)

Read: 7 min | Listen: 10 min

Executive Summary

• Distractions can cost mind-boggling sum in lost income due to the compounding effect.

• Most people lose 10-20 hours weekly to unchecked distractions.

• I'll show you the true cost of this and help you reclaim your time, which can lead to huge personal, professional and financial gains.

You are in danger of losing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Maybe even millions.

I hope that got your attention.

Let me explain.

Have you ever taken the time to calculate the real cost of distractions?

Think of all the time you spend scrolling social media.

Binge-watching Netflix.

Checking your phone.

Replying to inconsequential emails.

Going to unnecessary meetings.

Or just doing plain old busy work?

These distractions rob you of the time you could use for things that really matter. This is called opportunity cost.

For example, time spent on social media is time you could use to work towards your goals or earn extra income.

For entrepreneurs, hours lost or time spent on work that doesn't generate income can be even higher.

This is due to higher levels of overwhelm and more hours spent at work, which creates more opportunities for procrastination and distractions.

Various workplace studies support this.

But you don't need a study to know this is true.

Be real with yourself:

How much time do you waste each week in a way you wish you hadn't?

Grab a calculator right now and do the quick (and dirty) math.

I'll wait.

What you don't know can hurt you.

Big time.

And what gets measured, gets managed.

So, what do you consider a distraction…?

In my book…

Distractions Are Anything Not Aligned With Your Goals And Values

For most people productive and fullflling uses of their time are :

1. Enjoying time with family, friends, hobbies, or personal growth.

2. Activities that make them money or help others.

3. Working in their "zone" doing what they love and want to get better at.

If it's outside of these three buckets, it's most likely a distraction.

Let me walk you through a few examples to help you gain perspective on the severity of the problem.

You're most likely grossly underestimating it.

I know I used to.

By understanding this, you can start freeing up more of your time.

The Shocking Cost Of Distractions

Let's say you waste 10 hours per week.

Which is pretty standard nowadays in our hyperconnected world.

If you earn $60,000 a year (or $30 an hour), distractions could cost you:

• 500 hours of work in a year which roughly adds up to $15,000.

• In 10 years, you'd lose $150,000 in earnings and $62,000 in investment income, had you had re-invested your "lost earnings" at 10% per year.

• In 20 years, you'd lose a combined $600,000 in investment returns and lost wages.

Quite eye-opening, no?

Let's take a higher-stakes scenario.

If you make $200,000 a year (or $100 an hour), distractions would cost you:

• $50,000 in lost earnings per year and $500,000 over 10 years.

• $207,000 in investment income over 10 years.

• $2 million in combined wages and investment income over 20 years.

Wow!

…

When I first came up with this exercise, it blew my mind.

With this newfound perspective, I promptly eliminated over-watching Netflix and most of my mindless phone scrolling.

I became acutely aware of the value of my time.

And realized the following…

Do Not Mess With The Compounding Effect

Einstein allegedly said:

When you invest your money, you get a return.

When you reinvest that return, you get a return on that return.

Because of this compounding, past gains contribute to future returns, and your money grows exponentially over time.

Here is a table illustrating a few more scenarios.

This is for an individual who earns $60,000 a year and loses 10 hours to distractions weekly:

For all the examples above, I've made a few assumptions to simplify things and get my point across:

• I assume my example individual doesn't change their "distraction habits" within this period—which is true for most people.

• They work 50 weeks in a year, 40 hours per week and pay 30% tax.

• Their salary is the same year-to-year and there is no inflation.

You can play with my calculator (here) if you want to nerd out with the numbers and look at different scenarios.

Now let's help you…

Create Leverage Over Yourself To Easily Eliminate Distractions

When you shine the light of your awareness on distractions they have nowhere to hide.

Follow the following 4-step process to decrease distractions by 25-50% in a few weeks to claim back your time.

Do this now. It will only take a few minutes.

And it will make a huge difference for the rest fo your life.

Use pen and paper. Or type it in your notes app.

Step 1 ➠ Identify How Much Time You Waste

1. List your top distractions.

2. Estimate the time each one costs you each week.

3. Take the total and multiply it by the number of work weeks in a year.

4. For more accuracy, log your time hour-by-hour for 3-7 days with:

   • Pen and paper.

   • Or apps like Toggl, RescueTime or your phone's screen time app.

   • It'll be eye-opening. Most of us are overestimating our productivity.

Step 2 ➠ Get Perspective

Human behaviour is driven by two fundamental forces:

• The desire to avoid pain.

• The pursuit of pleasure.

You can create powerful motivation for positive change by linking:

• Pain to distractions and their cost.

• And pleasure to positive benefits of saying "no" to distractions.

By creating "emotional leverage" over yourself, you will be able to take action during those times when you don't feel like doing what you need to do.

1. Write down 3-5 negative consequences and the negative emotions you feel when you think of the total time you waste in a year.

2. Calculate the impact on your income.

   1. This year.

   2. Over several years.

   3. And if you had invested that income into revenue-generating assets such as stocks, your business or your personal development.

      ** Use my calculator to make this easier and explore different scenarios.

3. Write down what you could achieve if you used that time productively instead.

   For example, with an 10 extra hours weekly (or 500 a year) you could:

   1. Sleep 1.5 extra hours nightly so you're energized and productive.

   2. Work out 3 to 5 times a week and go for 1-2 massages.

   3. Read one 300-page book a week, or 50 in a year.

   4. Enjoy more dates with your partner, or extra time with your kids and friends.

   5. Take an entire day off work, each week.

   6. Learn a new skill.

   7. Close new sales and sign new clients.

   8. Train for your first marathon and complete 2 or 3 more.

   9. Complete 5 to 10 certification courses (40-100+ hours each).

   10. And so on…

Step 3 ➠ Take Action—Eliminate Distractions

Here, you want to build and use your "Focus Fortress" to shield you from distractions so you can focus 100% of your energy on doing high-quality deep work in flow.

I shared a comprehensive how-to guide in my last newsletter.

Step 4 ➠ Continue Building Your Awareness

Having done this exercise, you've trained your brain to be on alert for distractions. As you go through your week, you'll notice many opportunities and ideas to eliminate them.

To really anchor this in and leverage this 'radar function' of your brain:

1. Discuss your insights with 1 to 3 people.

2. Do this exercise together with them.

3. Journal and reflect on your insights.

4. Most important: Post this reflection and a few "cost of distraction" scenarios somewhere visible and read it daily for 1 - 2 weeks.

5. Capture thoughts and ideas as they come to you throughout the week.

Here is to invest the time you've reclaimed into creating the life of your dreams!

Next Steps

1. Take action: Do the reflection exercise. It's a game-changer. And share your insights with a few others. And in the comments below.

2. Click here to subscribe. Every weekend, you’ll get:

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Be all you can be!

Ovi