Funny, I was talking to someone and they were 50% present with me. The individual had an Apple Watch and it kept on dinging. When it dinged while I was talking, the attention went from me to the wrist and back to me. Ironically, I got lost in the conversation and actually, got distracted myself and forgot what I was about to say. Needless to say, it was not a productive conversation. It got me thinking back to a book I wrote in 2017, Mindful Meditations for Busy Lives.
In an age of numerous distractions, mindfulness has been a topic of discussion for a while now. It is being emphasized from grade schools to fortune 500 companies all over the globe. Why, because keeping the “main thing the main thing” has become a thing of the past. There is a ton of stimulation and need for stimulation all the time. If you are doing a project, and your phone buzzes, then you check your phone, then an email comes up, then you check the email, then an alert comes up, and you check your facebook account. All in all, you were extremely busy yet frustrated because you didn’t get what you needed done. Has this happened to you? Perhaps someone you know.
Easy solution; practice mindfulness. For a certain amount of time, only practice the one “thing” and let that “one thing” be the only thing that matters for a specified block of time. If you need to check the emails, facebook, linked, twitter, instagram, voicemail; do it after the allotted time. This will require the discipline to turn your phone off, disconnect for a little while, and come back to it later. Truth is, you will gain control of your digital world, and not letting your digital world control you. Very simple yet very powerful. There you have it, the key to being more productive in less time.
Good luck and there is a lot more to follow on this topic.
