Tag: Staying Focused

I Forgot My Phone… And I Survived

I Forgot My Phone… And I Survived

This morning I was up, ready and out on time. I was feeling good and confident despite the drizzly weather. Then, I realized I forgot my phone. Oh no. Panic set in. My heart-beat picked up and I tried to think through if I had enough time to go back. I didn’t.

Right then, I realized how silly my reaction was and decided I was going to see how I fared without it. I can do it. The first few minutes were still full of angst as I wondered about any missed calls or texts that would be waiting for me. I thought about being completely unreachable and about not being able to reach out. But, I pushed on determined to somehow make it through the day.

Thinking through the rest of my day, I realized I didn’t have my calendar. I would have to go from memory until I could get to my computer. In thinking through the day, I wondered about the rain and reached for my phone to check the weather. Nothing there. I would just have to plan for the worst case and prepare for rain.

At my first meeting, I got a new to-do and reached again for my phone to add the task to my to-do list. Ugh. Again, no phone. Oh well. I will have to try and remember it and then remember to add it to my list later.

For the first few hours, I found myself feeling restless and feeling for my phone in my back pocket. I am not really sure why. I knew it wasn’t there but I was doing it just out of habit. I realized that I really didn’t even have a reason to reach out for it but would do so anyway.

I was talking to someone who asked a question I couldn’t answer but I knew who would know. I instinctively reached for my phone to send a quick text to find out. But, without my phone, I instead continued with my conversation and honestly staying focused instead of being distracted proved to be quite enjoyable. I also recognized that I didn’t have to send the text right then. I could do it later.

Without my phone, I didn’t check Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn but I also didn’t miss out on any big news or event either. While my email messages certainly piled up, going through them at one point later in the day wasn’t as overwhelming or as time-consuming as I had imagined. In fact, as the productivity experts claim, it was certainly a lot more efficient to do it all at once instead of checking it constantly throughout the day. If only I could stick to this every day.

As the day went on, the less I missed my phone and the less I reached for it. I finally relaxed and felt at ease. I could do everything I really needed to even though I wasn’t able to do all the things that I had wanted to do. Most importantly, I survived the day without any incident or negative impacts.

I hope I forget my phone at home more often.

TRY THIS OUT: You know what I’m going to suggest and I also know you’re shaking your head. So, just think about it. How about putting your phone in the other room for an hour or so? How about taking a walk or attending a meeting without it? Then, try leaving it at home for a longer period of time. How does it feel? Can you survive without it?

The Myth of Time Management

The Myth of Time Management

So many of us talk about time management. Countless articles have been written and tools have been created to help us manage our time. There are time management gurus, tutorials and classes. Half of our working day is spent juggling our calendars in a never-ending attempt to “manage our time.”

But, what if we cannot manage time? Consider that this may just be a completely useless exercise. If you think about it, no matter what we do, time will always continue to tick forward. We cannot rewind it and we cannot fast forward it. It just is and just continues according to the plan – each second, every minute, the next hour and then into the next day.

That said, it should be obvious that time itself cannot be managed. I would propose that instead we rethink what we’re trying to “manage” and reorient our focus to the things that we can and do control:  our priorities, energy and attention.

PRIORITIES

Each day we all have more to do than we can handle. We know what needs to get done and we constantly make choices about what’s most important and what needs to be prioritized. Setting clear and deliberate priorities is the single most critical factor driving our productivity and future success. We can and do control how we spend our time even if we cannot control time itself.

ENERGY

We can also decide how to spend our energy. Energy is finite and to optimize output, it’s imperative that we focus our efforts and our energy on the most important priorities. This is harder to do than it seems these days due to the countless distractions that get in our way. So often, we expend more of our energy on the things that are seemingly urgent but not all that important.

ATTENTION

Focus seems to be a lost art especially for me. With countless dings, pings, alerts and notifications, it’s virtually impossible to focus on any one thing for an extended period. I personally struggle with this constantly. Research has shown that multi-tasking is not possible and simply does not work. To be most productive it behooves us to focus our full and complete attention on one task at a time. I have found that the Pomodoro technique works best for me since it forces me to focus for a set amount of time and reward myself with a break.

TRY THIS OUT: Do you spend a lot of time trying to manage your time? Does it work for you? Do you spend any time managing your priorities, energy and attention? If not, pick one and try to focus on it for a day or two. Do you find that you’re more productive?

5 Productivity Pitfalls

5 Productivity Pitfalls

At the start of a new year, a new job or a new project, we set clear goals, develop a workable plan and we are motivated, but then what happens? Somewhere along the way, we inevitably get derailed and find ourselves without clear direction, off our plan or distracted by other things that are clamoring for our time and attention.

Here are five pitfalls that can directly impact your productivity. First, be aware of them and then learn how to steer clear of them.

1. Digital Distractions

The number one deterrent to your productivity is the amount of time you spend checking your email and browsing social media or playing games. Turn off all your notifications and alerts and set aside specific periods of time each day for these activities. Better yet, schedule time for these digital distractions as your reward for completing a very important task or project.

productivity-20110103-093145

2. Meetings

We spend 35-50% of our working time in meetings and most of them are a total waste of time. Before blindly accepting meeting invites, think critically about whether attending the meeting is a good use of your time. If you must attend or hold a meeting, make the most of the time by following these guidelines for conducting effective meetings. Also, Patrick Lencioni’s book, Death by Meeting is another great resource.

3. Procrastinating

There’s always that one task that lingers on your to-do list and you will do a million other things instead of tackling it. Consider why you are avoiding it.  Is it not that important? Is it too daunting? Or, are you just not motivated? Understanding the importance of why you should do the task will help you find the motivation to attack the task head on. I also find that rewarding myself with something fun once the task is complete is another good motivator.

4. Multi-Tasking

This is my biggest weakness. When we have too much to do we just keep trying to do it all and sometimes all at once. However, the research and science has proven that it’s technically impossible for us to truly multi-task and the costs of constantly switching between tasks has such an impact that it’s just not worth doing. Instead schedule focused time to work on the most important things you need to get done.

5. Your Phone

Research shows that we are 26% more productive without our smartphones. On average we reach for our phones more than 85 times a day! Stop letting your phones control your time and your habits and start using it to increase your productivity instead of negatively impacting it. When you need to focus, try putting your phone in a drawer or in another room. Just try it and see what happens.

TRY THIS OUT: What are the pitfalls that are impacting your productivity? What are three things you can do to eliminate or avoid those pitfalls. How are you going to hold yourself accountable to steering clear of those pitfalls?