It stands to reason that, for most working people, the more distracted they are, the less productive they are. And these days, when there’s so much emphasis on staying connected through social media, and the “bullpen” office layout is becoming the norm, it’s no surprise that the inability to stay focused at work is on the rise.

For anyone working through treatment and/or experiencing related side effects such as chemo brain or fatigue, it can be even harder to concentrate while on the job.

According to an Inc. magazine article on “The Top 10 Office Distractions,” the key to dealing with interruptions is knowing which ones you are most susceptible to — then taking steps to eliminate (or at least mitigate) them.

For example, maybe the person in the cubicle next to you regularly conducts conference calls from her desk, and not only does she have a loud voice, but she always starts the calls on speaker phone. One way to manage a situation like this is to get yourself a pair of quality noise-canceling headphones to drown out the chatter.

Maybe you can handle the noise, but you can’t seem to ignore visual interruptions — such as the Twitter notifications on your iPhone. That may require some self-imposed rules at the office — such as locking your phone in your desk drawer and closing out of your browser when working files on your computer, so you don’t feel tempted to check your TweetDeck every 10 minutes.

When it comes to distractions, not everyone is bothered by the same things. But if you know that you fall prey to certain stimuli, you want to identify exactly what they are, then figure out ways to avoid them — especially if they are negatively impacting your job performance.

For the full article, click here.

For information on managing various side effects from treatment, click here.