Noise

There's three things that you can do when you feel that you're in the middle of noise, distraction, and losing focus. Block it out. Get away from it. Create space where there's no noise.

The easy option is to move away from the noise. If you have control over it, you can take actions to physically or mentally stop it from distracting you. But what happens when you don't?

Being able to get a job done, despite the distractions, is a superpower. There's evidence that being mentally focused (and not mentally fatigued) before endurance activities is critical to performance. When you're fatigued, your motivation drops, your cognitive function is lower and could result in worse form, and you are less present for the activity. You can still get it done, but it will detract from the effort and over time you will be limited in what you can achieve.

The best thing to avoid the noise is to create a space where it can't go. While I haven't done this in the way that most do -- through a routine and getting the most important part of your day done early in the morning -- once I start running there's no noise. It's just me, what's around me, and listening to the interplay back and forth. No music. Usually alone. No distractions.

Get through the noise, however you can.