3 Ways to Eliminate Productivity Busters

You’re in a Zoom meeting. Your phone buzzes. 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, set on automatic?

What if you’re with a customer and “Bing!” you get a text? 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.”

As someone who works from home with a young granddaughter looking for Pops every afternoon, I can relate.

Technology intrudes with a creep, then leaps onto the stage of your productivity; grabbing the limelight. 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 a 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. Employ the same schedule for texts.

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 create a positive work culture that increases productivity and profits? Create boundaries with your smartphone with categories for interaction. Engage selectively.

Execute with the “OFF” Button

You and/or your company 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 greater productivity and profits—your new Work Positive culture!