Episode 281

One of our listeners sent in a great question about distractions. Her question was a two-part approach to dealing with distractions. The first was dealing with the distractions of editing the wrong images. Were there ideas or strategies for making sure what we can edit the best images and not waste time on the wrong images. Before you actually edit an image in Lightroom do the following, write down on a piece of paper the following:

• emotions you want or feel in the image
• the story the images should tell
• technical steps to take to edit the image
• is this a known edit or experimental

If you can answer these questions then you might find that you are editing the best image of your collection. IF you can’t answer these questions, for now at least, it might be worth moving on to one that you can identify all the answers. 

The second area was dealing with distractions outside of editing. For me, this is mostly about dealing with what needs to be done verse what should be done and what I want to do. I always make sure the needs get done because withouth them I can’t operate the business. As for the rest of the long list of things. I try to focus on the present and future actions and let go of the past. I also try to figure out what the payout is for the distractions. Are they success or failure based, motivation lacking, or just things I feel guilty about not doing. Part of those distractions might be to give us a break and the rest we need. Other times it might be to keep us from working out of fear. If it is rest we need great, but if it is worry fear based, which is about the future, we need to work through that block to keep us present focused.