Some of us are so attached to our computers and phones and cells we panic when we are without them.
I haven’t been blogging lately because for almost a full week I had no cable/internet/ phone, only my cell. It’s very hard to do a lot of work on the cell I could check e-mail and voice mail but beyond that it was cumbersome. Then the following week I had to catch up. Of course the week it was down was the same week I had to grade my UCLA students’ final papers plus get ready for the new quarter.
I did learn a valuable lesson that week: life goes on. Work will get done. People understand technology glitches as long as you let them know. The most important is it allowed me to focus on what was important and needed to be done instead of all the busy work we do that we think is productive.
How often do we appear to be working really hard doing mundane tasks that aren’t helping us increase our business or improve our performance? That week really helped me reflect and think about where my focus needs to be 2nd quarter. It also gave me the time to read some business books I was putting off, that has given me more insight into my focus.
A colleague of mine had to go to Dallas for a week and he forgot his cell phone. He had a great experience living in the moment and focusing on why he was there, for a training program and to learn new tools. He was able to stay in touch with his family and could check work messages, and yes he had lots of them when he got back. The beauty of it was he saw which were trivial and didn’t really need his attention to begin with.
I am not suggesting you have cable issues, where you lose your internet, and phone nor am I suggesting you stay off your cell for a week. What I am suggesting is you think about what is controlling you and your performance. If you are plateauing now is the time to really look at what you do that has relevance to your success. Decide what busy work is, and what has purpose.
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