Distractions are Stealing Your Productivity!
How to protect your time and increase your productivity.
We are living in a world of constant interruptions and distractions.Between our phones, emails, text messages, social media, and other people’s needs, there is always something trying to steal our attention.More than ever people are challenged to find enough time in the day to meet the demands of their jobs, family and personal well being.
How quickly your time can be stolen away!
A study done by researchers at the University of California, Irvine, found that it typically takes an office worker over 23 minutes to get back on track after an interruption.If you tracked the number of constant interruptions and distractions in your typical day, and do the math, you may be shocked to see how quickly your time has been stolen away.An experiment was done by the authors of The Plateau Effect: Getting from Stuck to Success where they discovered work interruptions decreased accuracy by 20 percent. Not only are you losing your time but your quality of work just might be suffering as well.
Tina was busy but not productive!
Tina spent much of her day chatting with people in the office. Everyone liked and wanted to spend time with her. She always had time for everyone (or so it seemed), and never turned anyone away. When she wasn't visiting with coworkers she was responding to text messages and social media posts from her family and friends.
Her work was piling up and things needed to change!
She was taking work home or working overtime just to stay afloat. An analysis was done to determine the root cause of her excessive workload. It was found that the number of interruptions and distractions in her workday was the major factor. It was determined that she was only productive for an average of 3 hours a day. The remaining 5 hours were lost or stolen from her workday.
If constant distractions and interruptions are stealing your time, it is helpful to track them.
Track the number of distractions and interruptions over the next 3 days. Remember to include the amount of time on social media and personal phone interactions. Basically anything that takes you away from your focus and concentration is considered a distraction.
Protect your time and increase your productivity. Plan your strategy!
It takes focus, intention and discipline, to develop effective strategies to get time back in your day.
Plan your tasks for the day
This can make a huge difference in your ability to become more productive.
It is difficult to stay on course, if you don’t know what course you are trying to stay on.
When you take a vacation to your favorite destination, you must decide, where you are going, and how you are going to get there. Your tasks and the things you want to accomplish are no different. You must decide what you want to get done and how you are going to do it.
If you don’t plan your daily tasks, your day will be filled with other people’s agenda.
What are your TOP 3 TASKS for the day?
Plan the tasks you want to accomplish for the day by deciding on what top 3 tasks are most important for you to complete.If the tasks are large and take more than one day, chunk them down into smaller steps that you can complete in a day.
Commit to your plan, Protect your Time!
Productive high performers commit to their plans for the day and protect their time to get it done.Make a commitment to follow your plan.
When I say “commitment”, this means nothing will get in the way of the completion of your tasks.I am sure you are thinking, “easier said than done”. I didn’t say it would be easy, especially if this is new for you. But like anything else new, it is challenging at the start. But trust me the better you get at protecting your time, the more you will accomplish.
Be more productive and feel happier, more successful and more confident!
The book, High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard references that in the research they found that “if you feel you are more productive, you are statistically more likely to feel happier, more successful, and more confident. You’re also more likely to take better care of yourself, get promoted more often, and earn more than people who feel less productive.”
Make a commitment to start protecting your time, beginning NOW!
Don’t check your email or cellphone first thing in the morning.
The first thing most people do to start their morning is check their messages, emails, social media, or the news. You can waste a lot of valuable brain energy going down useless bunny trails on non-valuable information. When you check your emails first thing in the day, it can put you in a reactive state right off the hop. When you are reactive you are thrown into someone else’s agenda rather than your own.
Start your morning with your own agenda, not someone else’s.
Set your plan, check your calendar and organize your day. Schedule time in your calendar to check your emails, phone messages.
3 ways to stay focused on your task!
Put your desk phone on “do not disturb”, or if it rings let them leave a message so you can call them back later.
Remove temptation, put your smart phone out of reach. If someone is trying to reach you, they can leave a message and you can contact them after.
Stop distractions from popups and incoming emails by closing down your email while you work on a task.
Set yourself up for success!
Set an out of office message indicating that you are in the middle of an important task and will respond as soon as you are done.
For your phone, you can change your voice mail message to say you will respond as soon as you have completed an important task.
If there is someone that you feel needs you to respond, give them a heads up, that way you won’t be stressed about it or feel guilty.
Stop the distractions by being honest with others.
Telling someone that your busy and don’t want to be disturbed is difficult. Here is the thing, for every moment you give away your time to someone else, it takes valuable time away from what you should be doing.
You can have time to chat and help others, but it should be on your schedule not theirs.
There are ways to set yourself up for success, be respectful to others and still protect your time.When others stop by for a chat, tell them that you are working on something and will stop around once you get your task done.Be honest, remember constant interruptions and distractions not only impacts your productivity but also the quality of your work.
Be proactive, arrange a time to chat!
If you have a hard time telling others you are busy, be proactive, stop by their desk or contact them to let them know that you need to focus on your tasks . Arrange a time when you both touch base later. Put a sign on your desk, hang it off the back of your computer screen or put it on your office door or window, indicating you are busy. Letting others know you are busy goes a long way to getting time back in your day.
Don't change your plan, find a compromise that works for both!
Be proactive rather than reactive. If you are aware that someone needs your attention, connect with them prior to beginning your task, let them that you need to put your full attention to your task. Most people will understand and won’t have a problem with it. If anyone feels this won’t work, find a time that will work for both of you. Don’t change your task time you have planned, work to find a compromise outside that time that fits with your schedule.
If you won’t protect your time, someone else will steal it!"
Special acknowledgement to Brendon Burchard and his book, High Performance Habits and Robin Sharma, The 5 AM Club. If you want to get to the next level, I highly recommend reading their books.
Having great goals, plans and dreams for your future takes small steps everyday.
What you do in your day impacts the success &/or failure of your future goals!
Having a tool that can help direct your focus and keep you on task everyday takes being intentional and practice. Print off the PDF and start today to increase your productivity and get time back in your day!
For your free "FOCUS ON TODAY" PLANNING tool, click on the link below!
FOCUS ON TODAY PLANNING TOOL LINK
Don't let constant interruptions and distractions get in your way to success! Protect your time and take back your day!
Join me for my next blog, Workplace loneliness is a fast growing epidemic!
Having all the gadgets and social media platforms to keep us connected and yet studies show a concerning rise of loneliness in the workplace. This trend has an overwhelming impact on the health and wellness of our employees and causing a huge hit on the productivity for employers. If loneliness is affecting you or one of your employees, check out my upcoming blog.
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