Coffee and I are old friends (coffee is older than me of course) and I do a lot of thinking over coffee. With this in mind I decided to start a little concept called thoughts over coffee which I'll be doing from time to time.
I don't like laziness or reward it and while I don't have anything against down-time, relaxation, doing nothing and such other legitimate activities being lazy grinds my gears. There's many different forms of laziness including below.
Laziness - Distractions
You know you've done it and maybe even know you've done it far too much; allowing distractions to encroach upon or impede the things you've set out to do is tantamount to laziness. When a person is at work or performing a task productivity is what that person should be seeking and that's not going to be found through distractions that split or shift focus away from the set task or responsibility.
"I just need to check my phone..."
Ever said that or heard it said? Even thinking about it takes the focus away from the task and doing it is even worse. Often little distractions like this are more time and focus wasteful than they initially appear as checking the phone could then lead to focus shifting even further away depending on what was on that phone. People's thoughts drift. Get it?
I always set focused time, meaning a time for which I will not allow others to distract me or to distract myself.
It means turning my phone on silent and putting it face down so I can't see it ring. It means alerting others in the office that I'm not to be disturbed, and enforcing it, ignoring emails and other such things that, while maybe productive overall, will take my focus away from the task at hand and slow momentum. It makes me very productive.
It's not something that is the sole domain of the workplace either, it can apply to many aspects of our lives and through avoiding distractions we can find a greater level of focus, efficiency and productivity. Imagine being on a date with someone you really like and being distracted all the time and shifting focus away from them...that won't go well for you. Don't approach your relationships in this lazy and rather rude way, give them the time they deserve.
An exercise to do is to pay attention to every single time one is distracted over the day and log the time. It's often confronting how much of the working day (or productivity) is wasted. Don't we all want to do more with less time? Sure we do...so find greater productivity by taking ownership, showing responsibility and being disciplined when it comes to distractions and then let that become the habit.
What do you reckon? If you want to comment below then go ahead, I'm interested in your thoughts and experiences.
Design and create your ideal life, tomorrow isn't promised - galenkp
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Image(s) in this post are my own