Are distractions keeping you from getting focused?

According to one author, not letting the most challenging thing on your plate linger — among other things — will help keep you sane. That and more in today’s roundup:

Do the Hardest Thing First

Eliminate Distractions <read how @geoffliving does it, h/t @chatterbachs> http://t.co/mkIFY8a6

— Deirdre Reid, CAE (@DeirdreReid) September 27, 2012

According to author and strategist Geoff Livingston, if you want to be focused, you have to cut out the distractions. He has a nice list of things that he’s done over the past couple of years to keep distractions to a minimum — he won’t spend endless amounts of time on social media anymore, and he skips out on drama. Our favorite item on his list, though? This one: “Whatever my most difficult and/or necessary task of the day is — the one thing gnawing at my brain — I handle it first.” How do you handle your big challenges? (ht @deirdrereid)

More of the Same?

what ails political rallies? http://t.co/e7kOqpL4 it's all about the experience. #asae #eventprofs #mpi #pcma it'll all be over soon…

— John Nawn (@event_strategy) September 27, 2012

Politics aside, Republican consultant and CNN contributor Alex Castellanos may be sparking some flames when he suggests that Mitt Romney’s political events are boring, but there’s a translatable point in here for associations. We swear! “Every time I turn on my TV,” he said recently, “it’s the same political rally with Paul Ryan and the same crowd around him, state after state after state, and it looks like a political beauty pageant. And it looks like politics, not like governing.” He suggests that Romney change things up to reach different audiences. How do you ensure that you’re not “preaching to the choir” with one-note events, like Castellanos suggests Romney has? (ht @perfectmeeting)

What cool stuff have you seen online today? Shoot us a comment.

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