This Malaysian train was derailed by a heroic elephant protecting its herd.

Executives with attention deficit disorder get derailed by much smaller things for less noble reasons, both external and internal. Examples are easy to find:

External derailers:

• email
• visitors
• conversations in the hallway
• telephone

And internal:

• new ideas
• the urge to see something funny on YouTube
• remembering something you forgot to tell a colleague
• anxiety or impatience.
• etc. etc.

I can’t say whether external or internal stimuli are more to blame for our distractions, but I’m sure that when we’re at the office, external distractions are easier to fend off than internal distractions.

Just for today: Make a short list of your external derailers.  Then pick one you can shut out for 60 minutes. Can you turn your phone off? Not check email? Shut your door — or if you don’t have one, go work in the conference room? I once read about an exec who worked on the subway the whole day just so he could evade colleagues and other work folks who might interrupt him. Can you begin to do the same without having to go underground?

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Photo: Malaysian National Archive.  Story here at Journey Malaysia.