All this is a distraction from the task of making the south of Kazakhstan more secure.

ECONOMIST: Kazakhstan: In defence | The

Indeed Mr Mendonca de Barros's swift departure was welcomed by markets as the removal of a distraction from the legislative task at hand.

ECONOMIST: Crossed lines in Brazil

The Journal talked to Gloria Mark, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, who says it can take 23 minutes for a worker to get back to the task at hand after a distraction.

FORBES: How To Overcome Workplace Distraction

But some alumni criticized the task force as a "distraction" from what they consider the most pressing issue: accepting responsibility for decades of alleged abuse students suffered at the hands of a football coach Philip Foglietta between 1966 and 1981, which is currently the subject of a federal lawsuit brought by nine plaintiffs.

WSJ: Abuse Claims Roil School

Schedule distraction-free periods on your calendar, during which you can fully attend to one task at a time.

CNN: A New Year's resolution for the workplace