The number one killer of your marketing productivity – at least in my experience – is other stuff.

Or more accurately, switching to do other stuff when you get a bit stuck with your marketing.

Here's an example: when I was trying to write the opening line of this email I got a bit stuck. Rather than sitting trying to get it right, I flipped tabs and checked the split test we're running of different Facebook ads for Kathy's upcoming summit.

It's not that checking the progress of our test isn't useful.

It's just that checking it now, when I was supposed to be writing this email, really hurts productivity.

I'm sure you've heard that creative work needs a different frame of mind to other types of work. And it takes a while to warm up to the task and get yourself in that frame of mind.

According to a recent University of California Irvine study, it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get refocused after an interruption.

Ignoring the spurious accuracy for a moment, that's a long time. And I think it's even longer when it comes to creative work.

So the reality is that if you get interrupted while you're trying to be creative it takes a good while to get back on track.

And the problem these days isn't just outside interruptions like phone calls or notifications. It's that we're constantly interrupting ourselves.

The minute we get even a tiny bit stuck with something we flip tabs and check emails or scroll a bit of social media or do something else ostensibly useful.

But in reality, what we're really doing is getting a little stimulation fix in preference to staring at the screen and working through our problem.

It's much easier. And we can kid ourselves we're doing something useful.

Because at some point we will need to check email or the progress of that split test. There is some minor value in checking your Linkedin feed and replying to a relevant post.

But all of those can be done later – without breaking your flow.

I don't think there's an easy answer to this kind of self-interruption addiction we all seem to have.

But something that definitely helps me is just being aware of it. When you're aware of it you can keep it in check a little.

Noticing I'd distracted myself when writing the first line of this email helped me keep more focused and I managed to stay on track while writing the rest of it.

There were a couple of points when I got stuck and I was ever so tempted to flip tabs and check email or see if I'd had a reply to that comment I posted in a Facebook group just before starting the emails.

But instead, I closed my eyes. Breathed. Then got back to writing.

And the words came.

Sometimes it's not quite so easy to stay on track. But being aware of when you're distracting yourself and how much it hurts your productivity definitely helps.