You open your laptop to do one simple thing.

Reply to one email.

Then you notice another message.

That reminds you of something you need to look up.

Twenty minutes later, you’re reading an article that has absolutely nothing to do with the email.

And then it hits you:

“Wait… what was I doing?”

Hello everyone, and welcome to Daily English.

Today’s expression is “I got sidetracked.”

To get sidetracked means to become distracted from what you originally intended to do because something else caught your attention.

You were heading in one direction, and somehow, you ended up somewhere else.

Let’s look at two examples.

Imagine you’re cleaning your room.

You pick up an old box because you want to put it away.

Inside, you find some photographs from years ago.

You sit down and start looking through them.

One photo reminds you of a trip, so you look for more pictures on your phone.

An hour later, your room is still a mess.

Someone asks:

“I thought you were cleaning your room?”

And you say:

“I was! I found some old photos and got completely sidetracked.”

The distraction wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

It just pulled you away from your original task.

Here’s another example.

You’re telling your friend a story about something funny that happened on the weekend.

Halfway through, you mention a restaurant.

That reminds you of another restaurant.

Then you start talking about a terrible meal you had there three years ago.

Five minutes later, you suddenly stop and say:

“Wait. How did we get onto this? I got sidetracked.”

And this is an important point.

Getting sidetracked isn’t only about work or productivity.

A conversation can get sidetracked.

A meeting can get sidetracked.

Even a story can get sidetracked.

You start with one thing, something else grabs your attention, and off you go in a completely different direction.

Now it’s your turn.

What usually gets you sidetracked?

Your phone?

A conversation?

An interesting idea?

Thank you for being here today.