Another thing my clients learn is how to keep and maintain their focus of attention.
Let’s say you need to look up an email on your phone. You push the home button to switch on the screen and key in your security code or use you fingerprint login. The next thing you see is the landing screen of your phone. There is a red batch on one of your messenger-apps with a number in it, that indicates that you have some new messages. You click on it and read the messages. You reply to some of them immediately. Then you switch of your phone and the screen disappears. In that moment – or much later – you remember that you actually wanted to look up an email.
- Where was your focus?
- Where was your awareness?
- What just happened?
You just got distracted. That means you did not do, what you actually wanted to do. Some call this waste of time. The keys to productivity are prioritisation, focus, clarity and relaxation.
IMAGINE! It is the last day at work before your long awaited vacation. Let’s say your flight leaves at 9pm. In the morning it becomes clear to you that you need to check-in by 7pm which means that you need to leave the office at the very lastest by 6pm. Now you are planning backwards. You decide that there are two phone calls to make, three things you can finish that day and one meeting you can attend. That’s it. Otherwise you will not be able to catch your plane.
This short planning ahead all of a sudden enables you to say “No” to people, to NOT attend meetings where your attendance is not absolutely necessary, to postpone non-urgent items, to delegate important tasks and stay focused on the things you decided to finish. Having a plane to catch apparently helps a lot of us to plan and prioritse, to stay focused, be clear about what you want and need to achieve and to be relaxed enough to say NO with a smile!