This exact question came up in conversation today as we were discussing ideas and tips on how to stop procrastinating, how to ensure key deliverables are delivered, how to ensure that those essential money making tasks/goal achievement tasks are completed.
I naturally asked for more clarification to which the question was – “Well what do you do when an email pings its way into your inbox? Do you open it, read it, and get distracted from what you were doing or do you ignore it and come back to it later?”
I have to admit that I do have a habit of becoming distracted by the inevitable and ongoing email “Hi, I’m here, read me now” ping” and even if I turn off the alert I do find myself checking in on a regular basis. I feel pretty confident in saying that I don’t think I am the only one.
So how do you ensure there is no wriggle room in your daily schedule to maneuver yourself unwittingly out of the right here, right now jobs at hand. Of course, it’s easy to talk about and even easier to have the right intentions, but the discipline of staying focused is a whole other ball game.
The answer shared this morning was to adopt a personal mantra that when said over and over again becomes your focus, becomes your decision making a guide.
So as of now, I am adopting the mantra of Matt Church when anything comes my way as a possible interruption – “No not now…Soon”
I’ll let you know how I go.