How’s your concentration span? It’s been estimated that distractions and interruptions steal up to two hours per day of productive time for the average worker, and it’s getting worse. Phone calls, email, Facebook, Twitter, Blackberries - even newsletters like this can steal your attention away from the task in hand.
But new technology isn’t the only culprit. Your own thoughts can stop you working effectively. If you’re constantly thinking about what’s happened in the past, and all the other things you have to do in the future, you won’t be focusing properly on what needs doing right now. Business owners need to be able to innovate and think creatively - if you can’t focus, then you’re not operating at full power.
Here are some of the key thoughts that stop you thinking productively.
• Single thought. Relying on a single idea or plan to see your project through. Consider back ups, and other ways of doing it.
• Worry. Anxiety diverts time and energy away from the issue you’re supposed to be dealing with.
• Frustration. Focusing on your frustration with a task, rather than the mechanics of the problem, slows you down. Plus, the harder you work at being frustrated, the better you’ll get at it.
• Getting it out of proportion. Making your challenge so important or all-consuming can stop you from overcoming it. Take a step back and see the wood for the trees.
• Knowing the right answers. You’re so convinced that you have all the answers that you stop entertaining or looking for alternatives.
• Running it through a committee. Nothing destroys individual initiative like a committee. Relying on a committee often denies personal responsibility, which eliminates the thrill of taking the risk. Having too many meetings to “discuss it” (which really means “listening to individual agendas”) wastes time and doubles the cost.
• Setting inappropriate deadlines. Make them too short and the task becomes impossible. Too long, and you lose interest in the project.
How to take control and think productively
Stop, relax and focus on your breathing for a minute. Move away from your computer, turn off your phone. Then take a piece of paper and, as quickly as you can, write down any issues that come to mind. It doesn’t matter how pressing or trivial the concern. If it comes to mind, write it down.
Keep writing until you have nothing more to write. When you’ve finished, step back, look at your list, and acknowledge that you will deal with each concern at the appropriate time. This undermines the power of those issues to distract you, and makes it possible to give your full attention to the activity at hand.
Identify what makes you work best
Understand the conditions that make you work best, and try and build them into your routine.
• Necessity. Nothing sharpens the attention better than demands.
• Fun. Having a great time makes the juices flow.
• Boldness. Jumping right into a situation with both feet.
• Speed. Doing it as fast as you can.
• Shooting from the hip. Starting without a plan and applying ideas as they come to you.
• Taking risk. A real risk, without a safety net. Feeling the fear but going ahead with it anyway. For some, it’s the threat of failure that really sparks creative thinking.
• Pride. Taking pleasure in success and accomplishment.
• Time pressure. Feeling the rush of the deadline.
• Mental sparks. Feeling bold, standing out in the crowd, and getting noticed.
• Trust in last-minute inspiration. Having faith in your ability to pull the project out of the fire.
• Relaxing. Loosening your grip on life’s worries.
• Reflection. Having a private time and space to contemplate your navel.
The emails, Tweets and constant barrage of interruptions aren’t going away any time soon. Nor are our internal distractions. So identify the ones that hinder you the most and take appropriate action to defuse them. You’ll get a lot more done throughout the day and you’ll be surprised at what your innovative side comes up with.
Source. Holly Green. Forbes.
