When I sat down to write this article I started by asking myself, “what would be of value to my colleagues worth taking the time to write about? Almost at the exact same moment I received a ping on my laptop that meant someone was sending me a personal message on Facebook and there it was, a distraction! The one thing that stops most of us in our tracks and prevents us from focusing on our business goals.

Before I go any further, I think it’s important that I own up to the fact that when it comes to distractions and procrastination I am a gold medal winner! Even writing an article for this magazine is something I do because I feel I need to, rather than want to, so any distraction is likely to lead to me finding new ingenious ways to procrastinate and not return to the task in hand of writing. This got me thinking. What is the difference between procrastination and distraction?

For the purposes of this article I am going to focus on distraction, which can be very harmful for our productivity and overall DJ business. However, I feel first it’s important to understand the difference between this and procrastination. Procrastination, as I see it, is a conscious decision to put something off for another time that we know needs to be done. This can be more harmful, in my opinion, for our business than a distraction as it’s a voluntary action which essentially asserts that the job in hand is not important enough for us to do right now. This can ultimately lead to the job never being revisited and a possible opportunity missed. Procrastination can, however, also include a certain level of distraction. This is when we use distractions to avoid doing something; when we look for something else to distract us and occupy our thoughts rather than the task in hand. Ultimately, though, I think the real difference is that a distraction can be involuntary. The perfect example being the ‘Squirrel!’ running gag in the Disney movie UP.

In this article I will attempt to give you some real-life examples of how distractions can harm our productivity and therefore ultimately the success of our DJ business. I will then share some ideas that I have personally found useful for combatting distractions.


As a DJ, it’s easy to be overwhelmed. After all, for many of us the running of a business and the actual job of performing at events has to be balanced with spending quality time with the loved ones who deserve our attention. It can be difficult to achieve that elusive ‘work/life balance’ that we so often hear we should be striving for, and easy to feel that you are giving neither your work nor home life the full attention it deserves. It is then all too easy to feel overwhelmed, which easily leads to distraction.

The number one way to lose sight of your goals is to be distracted or overwhelmed by your day-to-day responsibilities. How many times have you told yourself, “I’m just trying to get through today?” When you get that distracted, overwhelmed feeling, it’s difficult to focus on anything at all.


I was lucky enough to attend the Mobile Beat conference earlier this year in Las Vegas. On the last day the final keynote speaker was Bryan Dodge, author of books such as ‘The Good Life’ and ‘The Principles of an Unstoppable Family Business’, who talked about the law of diminishing intent. As an example of this, imagine you’re busy in the office going through your daily routine – answering phone calls, sorting through your emails – when a thought pops into your head. It could be the face of someone you have been meaning to contact, a final piece of the puzzle you have been working on, or an idea for a gift for a client or someone special in your life etc. The trick is to act on it straight away before it falls beneath the surface again. That’s diminishing intent. If you don’t act on an internal decision to do something quickly, the likelihood of it ever being achieved diminishes quickly.

Think of it like an inbox in your head. Somebody could bring you an important contract for you to read over in a bright orange envelope. When it’s on top of the pile, it’s easy to see, reminding you to take action. But if you ignore it, it gets buried by less important envelopes until you forget about it all together.

Some of the ideas that come into our heads can be business and life changing opportunities. However the idea is only one part of the puzzle, action is required to make them a reality. And if we don’t act quickly, just like the orange envelope, they will soon be covered in more thoughts and ideas, which means the chance of us ever taking action is rapidly diminished.


Recently a friend shared on social media about a bad review that had been posted about his business by a competitor. He was understandably troubled, unsure of how to respond and ultimately distracted from achieving his goals. No one likes a bad review, regardless of whether it is founded or not. If we receive one, most of us will be drawn in to react or, at the very least, do some soul-searching as to whether it was justified or not. However, this can easily turn into a distraction. Now I am not saying we should avoid the review or ignore it, but the amount of time and thought we dedicate to it needs to be managed, to avoid it distracting us from our business. Ultimately, a bad review on your social media can hurt, but the distraction that it can course to your business can hurt more!

Reviews aside, social media is undoubtedly one of the biggest distractions of modern life. However, as a working DJ running a successful business, it can be a necessary distraction. After all, it is a useful marketing and market research tool, not to mention for some a very viable source of new business. That said, with its addictive nature, it can be all-consuming. When we spend far too much time checking what others are doing it is all too easy to lose focus on what we could be doing.
Facebook, to single out just one social media platform that I use myself and know is used by many of my peers, has another all-too-tempting source of distraction: the group post. Like a soap opera, those contentious discussions draw us in to check what everybody else’s opinion is and, before we know it, the post has exploded out of proportion and hours have been wasted either arguing or simply being wound up by the view of others. The antidote for this distraction can be found in turning off Notifications, so you’re not distracted any more than you choose to be.