A SCATTERED LIFE
Ever feel like you are expected to do it all, so you juggle every single thing that comes at you without skipping a beat? Lot’s of balls in the air at once. The daily life of a small business owner or entrepreneur is filled with multitasking and distractions. Your day flies by and you’ve worked yourself silly…but were you productive? Did you finish an entire project or complete an important task?
Fighting fires every moment? Switching between tasks ten times a day? When you are focused on a task and interrupted, it takes time to readjust and refocus. A professor from the University of California at Irvine did a study finding that it takes on average 23 minutes to get back to a task after interruption. Finding and developing focusing strategies will lead to a more productive life.
Here are a few ideas to tackle your day in a focused way.
1. Arrange your week to group similar tasks together. For example, Monday might be your marketing and communications day. Tuesday meet one on one with managers or employees. Wednesday is a day to focus on tasks directly related to your product or service. And so on.
2. Schedule blocks of time and specific goals. Having uninterrupted time is rare and valuable. It’s in your hands to make it happen. Set a goal. Determine how much time you’ll need to achieve it, and put it on your calendar. If you can’t do the task in a short amount of time, schedule a larger block or break down the task into smaller goals. Depending on your business and goals, blocks of time can be 25 minutes, an hour, or five hours. Figure out what works for you.
3. Break the tether! We are tied to our electronic devices. Checking email, texts, Facebook, Instagram, and voicemail are distractions that constantly interrupt tasks. Stopping to take a one minute phone call may cause you to spend 10 minutes figuring out where you were at and what you were doing before the call came in. Schedule time for this throughout your day. It’s OK to return a call, text, or email in an hour.
Concentration is a huge factor in achieving our goals. We can develop some great habits to increase our ability to concentrate. Setting goals and removing distractions are the foundation of becoming productive. Add consistency to the mix and you’ll be on your way to a highly productive life. It will take time and patience to implement these new habits but learning to do something new takes dedication and repetition.
Concentration is the root of all the higher abilities in man. Bruce Lee
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Tips & Advice by Jen Kelly – BizQuack Member and owner of J Dot Creative
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