You’re staring out your office window…lost in thought about your upcoming dinner party…when you jerk back to reality: “Oops, where was I?” you think, as you look down once again at the report on your desk. You’ve been daydreaming. Daydreaming can be a real productivity bandit, especially when you’re supposed to be focusing on a higher-priority project. Excessive daydreaming can waste precious time that could be better spent on other things. But daydreaming isn’t always bad. There’s a difference between true daydreaming as the brain’s response to overload or boredom and thinking time that may lead to promising ideas. How do you ensure daydreaming time is productive time? Don’t use daydreaming to procrastinate. Daydreaming can be a good tool for transitioning to a … [Read more...]
Improving Your Concentration Span
Rinoa posts, “Could you post something about improving your concentration span? I know the reason why I procrastinate is because I know I won't be able to concentrate long enough to finish the task. Please help.” Inability to concentrate comes from three main sources: 1. Technology 2. People 3. Your brain 1. TECHNOLOGY. First, you must disable your global email alerts, so you don’t receive a notification for every garbage email coming into your in-box but still be able to receive an alert for “important” people. Turn off your global desktop alerts in Outlook: Under the Tools menu Select Options In the Preferences Tab, select Email options In the Email Options dialog box, … [Read more...]
I intended to post an article on procrastination but didn’t get around to it
As author Jennifer Duffy quipped in her article in the Arizona Daily Star on 3/13/06, "I know I should have thought of a better joke, but I ran out of time." Jennifer posts several quotes from me in her article on conquering procrastination, such as breaking up large tasks into little pieces, do something for only five minutes to gain momentum, etc. All those ideas are nice, but fundamentally, if you really want to conquer procrastination, you have to understand the psychology behind WHY you're doing it. All the tips in the world won't help if you don't take time to understand your behaviors around the procrastination habit. Then you can match the HOW with the WHY. Not all tips work for all people. Lee Silber advocates in the book "Organizing From the Right Side of the Brain: A … [Read more...]
Changing poor productivity habits
Changing poor productivity habits Dixie Sanner writes an article in the Washington Business Journal called Time Smart: Too busy? Trick is habit (re) forming. (See it at http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2006/02/27/smallb2.html?hbx=e_sw). In it, she outlines a 5-step process in changing your habits: 1. Pinpoint the habit you want to change and analyze it. 2. Describe what you'd like to do instead 3. Develop a new routine that will help your new habit take root 4. Be consistent 5. Ask for help All really good advice. But the article doesn’t do much to give you specific ideas on new routines (step 3). If we really want to be “Time Smart,” which habits should we change? Perhaps the article should have focused on one specific bad habit and … [Read more...]
