A random or unproductive email sent to you, someone poking their head in your door to say “How ya’ doing?”, and junk mail and jokes – it could go on all day long. They are taking bits of our time and stealing our focus, and we are letting them. Perhaps we like it and perhaps we like that it allows us to procrastinate more difficult mental work.
People are social, and need to be. Some jobs are all about interacting with others. But high performing achievers put themselves in positions to focus, and spend a much higher percentage of their time applying themselves to high value work uninterrupted. They make this time, and make other time for interaction with others. They have control of their time, not others.
Are you in control of your time?
Is it just me, or do you think the “constant comments” people send eat up everyone’s time? Things like “reply all” non-substantive remarks are nice, collegial things to do, but they create noise and clutter. Sometimes you have to let someone know that you received what they sent you or give special thanks for an important project or for someone passing along valuable information. However if it is understood that a deliverable will and has been met, just keep quiet and let people get on with business!
“Just sayin…”
I’ve noticed that the leaders I look up to are not as chained to their phones as I sometimes feel I need to be. They get back to you on their time, which is not always as immediate as I might like. Hmmm…