Quick, what were you doing...just before you clicked over here?
So, in order to get from "there" to "here" you had to change your focus. I think a lot of people I get to work with think that the need more time - more minutes in the day, more days in the week, more weeks in the month. When, in honesty, they need more focus.
The idea that we can do more than one thing at once continues to be, well...Silly. I mean, as I'm writing this, if I try to do anything else (look at the dog, read an email, write a note/thought down, ANYthing) I slow down. Or, worse, I stop. Now, the crazy thing is, IF I stop, do something else, and then come back to this post (which, by the way, I did as a test), I find that it takes me a few more moments to get back into a flow. Go ahead, try it out for the next few days.
Purposefully start to do something, stop, do something else, and then come back to what you were doing.
Study what happens to your productivity when your focus is compromised.
Here are 3 ways I've found, over the years, to focus in on (or ignore away from) my own Most Important Things:
2. Set a timer. I love (LOVE, LOVE) my countdown timers. (Yes, plural...) I have one in the kitchen, on my wrist, and on my bike computer. You see, it's much easier to focus with all I've got when I can look over and see exactly how much (or, as is usually the case, how little) I have to go. This works for all kinds of things...Cleaning a room, writing an article, climbing a hill...
3. Pick 3. As soon as you read this, write down on a note card or sticky note the THREE things you MUST work on throughout today. Put that sticky note on your computer monitor and stick it to yournote book when you walk away from the computer. See what happens...
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