Article Contributed by Dr. Joey Faucette
You’re in a team meeting. Your desk phone rings. Do you read the Caller ID and decide about answering?
You’re working on your computer on an important project. Is your e-mail open? Is it set on automatic?
What if you’re with a customer and your smartphone buzzes with a call? Do you take it?
Marilyn vos Savant says, “Working in an office with an array of electronic devices is like trying to get something done at home with half a dozen small children around. The calls for attention are constant.”
Technology intrudes with a creep, then leaps onto the stage of our productivity; seizing the starring role. Greater productivity is yours when you daily recognize the creep and create boundaries that limit it.
Multi-tasking is a productivity buster. The myth is you do more. The reality is you do less and what you do get done is less well.
Here are three actions to take today to increase your productivity and limit technology’s intrusion:
Establish Technology Schedule
Set up specific times when you employ various technology. Answer email on a schedule—a certain block and time yourself. Turn off the automatic updating and notification features on your computer and smartphone’s email. Forward requests best answered by a team member. Listen to voicemails and return calls on a schedule.
Engage Selectively
Your phone may be smart, but most of us are not when selecting how to engage with it. Social media is a marvelous relationship-building tool. Use it. Monetize it.
But do you really need a notification when someone wants to connect on LinkedIn? Or, posts a picture of lunch on Facebook? Or, tweets a rant about the government?
Engage selectively with those in your primary sphere of influence. Clients, team members, and family members are top drawer. The rest are also-ran’s for your attention.
Your productivity is at stake. Want to increase sales and get out of the office earlier? Create boundaries with your smartphone with categories for interaction. Engage selectively.
Execute with the “OFF” Button
You pay for technology services. They are to serve you, not vice versa. Turn them totally off at designated times to innovate and create. A buzz, bing, or bleep dams up your flow for broadening outcomes and developing a new mindset. Avoid drying up your creative stream by pressing the “off” button.
Create boundaries around your technology that allow you to focus completely on what is most important and enjoy your increase in sales with greater productivity which gets you of the office earlier to play with your family and friends—your new Work Positive lifestyle!
About the Author
Dr. Joey Faucette is the #1 Amazon best-selling author of Work Positive in a Negative World (Entrepreneur Press), coach, and speaker who help business professionals increase sales with greater productivity so they get out of the office earlier and do what they love with those they love. Discover more at www.ListentoLife.org/speaking.