How To Win Back Your Sanity – And Your Time
You get in to work, sit down at your desk, clear out a few e-mails and start blasting through that report that’s due in less than an hour… Looking good, on your way to the finish line when — whoops, what’s that? A text from one of the kids — forgot his homework…
You’re just getting that fire doused when you get a Facebook IM from a friend, so you click to see what’s up and… whoa, check out the leaping-lizard video… The minutes slip by, and when you finally look up and check the time… Yikes, five minutes to finish that report!
It’s no joke. Not only are people more stressed than ever, but all those little attention shifts could be robbing you of as much as 3.2 hours every working day, according to recent studies in the new field of “Interruption Science.”
An article in the Harvard Business Review says that trying to focus on more than one thing at a time lowers your IQ by 10 points — and decreases your productivity as much as 40%. (That’s nearly half of your entire day — gone!) No wonder we end so many days with that gnawing sense that we got so little done…
Among the chief culprits in all this is the endless stream of notifications that our smartphones and other devices send us whether we’re in the middle of a meeting, trying to finish a report, dodging traffic on the commute home or doing our best to give full attention to the real flesh-andblood person sitting across the table at dinner…
We’re bombarded with an endless stream of visual and sound cues about the latest text message, e-mail, social update instant message, phone call, voice mail, chat request… It’s all wonderful, but how do you balance it with getting important things done?
To conquer the endless interruptions when you need to concentrate, follow these steps:
Phone Calls And Text Messages
First, you’ll want to weed out all but mission-critical calls and texts. That way, you can go into Do Not Disturb mode without feeling panicky that your kids, boss, client or aging parent may not be able to reach you in a pinch:
Android: Tap Settings > Sound & notification > Interruptions and set your preferences. Then open Contacts and star the folks you don’t want to block when you’re in Do Not Disturb mode.
iOS: Tap Settings > Do Not Disturb > Allow Calls From and select Favorites. Next, check your iOS Favorites list — texts and calls from these folks will get through even when you’re in Do Not Disturb mode.
Social Networks
In Facebook, go to Settings > Notifications and turn off any notifications you don’t need. In Twitter, select Settings from the upper-right drop-down menu, then your preferred notifications from the new menu on the left.
If you’re a Gmail user and that little bright red circle from Google Plus screams “click me” more often than you’d like, unfortunately your only option is to download Google Chrome and install the Hide Google+ Notification extension.
No matter which e-mail client you use, there’s a setting for turning notifications off. And that’s just half the battle… To really master time spent in e-mail, try limiting your responses to certain times of day. You may want to set up an autoresponder to let folks know what your “e-mail hours” are if you’re concerned about not responding right away. If you’d like help with any of this, call us!
Let Our ‘Force Be With You’
We can help you win the battle against techno-stress and time waste. Call us at 678-523-5599 or e-mail us at [email protected] to book your free “Win-back-your-time” workout with one of our tech superstars. We’ll help you mute your e-mails, set up your smartphone, modify your social media and put your technology squarely back on your side.
But call now – before that crazy cat video sucks you back into the maelstrom.