A distraction keeps a living thing from doing something. A thing that doesn't live cannot be distracted. For example: He distracted me from painting a new portrait. A diversion can happen to a living or non living thing. For example: Music is a nice diversion for your time, but reading is better. Hope it helps. With love, Sabina

To distract is to divert attention from the original focus, to divert is to change direction. However, you could say that someone diverted your attention away from something, thus distracting you. Examples: I was driving my car when I was distracted by the ringing of my phone. We were driving and there was a diversion due to road works. We had to divert from our original intended route.