Are you a host to productivity or a hostage to the electronic restraints known as email, cell phones and personal digital assistants (PDA)?
While they are all amazing tools of productivity, I see so many people misusing their gear and actually creating whirlpools of wasted energy which suck away the actual benefit these tools were intended to provide – efficient use of time.
Here are four simple tips on using your electronic gear more effectively:
Learn to love your [Delete] key.
Most people don’t even know where the [Delete] key is on their keyboard. It seems to be a scatoma for most people. The reason they don’t see it, even though it’s right in front of them, is they do not want to use it because they cannot let go of things. Learn to let go and free up not only your computer’s memory but your psychic RAM as well.
Professionals have a process.
Learn to properly process the information coming at you each day. A useful habit is asking the following three questions, “what is this?” , “what does it mean to me?” and “what do I need to do with it?” In doing so, you will find you can easily process each item more effectively. When you are missing data around one of those questions is when you go numb to the item and it gets stuck in your in box and things start to pile up.
Create a place to park those items you feel you can not process yet. If you check that designated holding place at the end of each day you will often find you have gained the data you need to process that item successfully.
Make your best effort of getting your electronic in basket down to zero at the end of each day. It can be done and you will be glad you did.
Train people how to interact.
All too often people make the mistake of thinking they must respond to every item that comes their way. This thinking quickly leads to getting roped into an electronic game of Ping-Pong.
After they are engaged in this futile match they find they have wasted half a day chasing around something which really has no bearing on their productivity. If you can develop the habit of only responding to mission critical emails, texts and voicemails people will soon get the idea that you are not a willing participant to get caught in their busy trap.
Don’t answer the phone.
Probably the biggest time waster is answering the phone every time it rings while you are working on key projects. Answering the phone pulls you out and away from the flow or zone you are in while getting things done. The interruption totally redirects your focus, energy and attention. Studies show this costly disruption causes you to lose about 15-20 minutes while getting back in to the zone.
Remember phones and voicemail are for your convenience so you can serve your clients more competently. Let the calls roll to voice mail and then process your voicemail more resourcefully.
If you can turn your ringer off while focused on projects do it. If you cannot, consider moving to another area such as a conference room away from the temptation of the drumming phone.