he phone’s ringing, your laptop is beeping at you, an alert goes off, in the midst of all this, you get 3 text messages.
Busywork : 10 Productivity: 0
In 2015, I did a 15 day blog challenge, and one of those days ways to write about one tool that I use to be remove distraction.
And this one had me thinking. It was a bit of a toughie.
I talk a lot about productivity, and all of the apps that I use.
Asana for keeping my small but mightyteam n track
Google calendar, for running my life
Facebook messenger, for my Rocjkstar clients who get instant access to me
Lastpass, to save me from having to remember eleventy billion passwords
And anymeeting, which allows me to meet with people, even if they don’t have Skype
I’m usually pretty good at removing distractions (like facebook) when I have to work.
I’ve even been known to put my phone on silent, put on my Spotify “working” playlist and really get stuff done.
When I was in the store, there was a standardised “She’s in a Skype Meeting” answer, for when people ring my office.
But, I’ll be the first to admit, there are days when I simply feel like I just don’t get anything DONE.
And it’s not because I was overwhelmed, it’s usually because I was procrastinating. Or chatting. Or I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole of “busywork”.
In terms of getting your productivity sh*t together, let’s start with email.
I know there are a load of programs that can help email overload, like sanebox and boomerang. The idea behind all of them is to organise your inbox, and not be bombarded with constant emails. You can also time responses for when they need to be sent – avoiding email ping pong.
You can also set your email up to only sync during business hours. Personally, I shut email down when I finish at 4.30pm, and (generally) don’t open it back up until I get in the next day, at 9.00am
Another tech tip, is to use a separate browser (mine is Firefox), where I just don’t have any bookmarks set up. I can use this if I need to do research, without the distraction of things like Facebook dinging in the background. Or if you really need to separate yourself from the internet to get stuff done, try an app like Freedom.
But my distraction removal tool, which I do use, but admittedly not often enough, is something most of use have at our disposal.
It’s even FREE.
It’s called
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..
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Shutting the Door.
Yep, it’s as simple as that. Shutting the door takes away a million and one distractions. If you don’t do it all the time, it signifies to outsiders that your busy. You’re not available.
Come back later,
You’d be amazed at just how productive you can be, when you Shut The Door.
(disclaimer – this may not work perfectly if you work from home and have a small person who perfects banging on said door to get your attention).
Never the less, I urge you to try Shutting The Door, and report back to me one how much you manage to achieve, in a limited time.