Increase your productivity by living your day on purpose.
Imagine settling down for a nice peaceful day of productivity in your office. You close your door, and hunker down for some real progress. You have a specific plan and you know exactly what you need to get done, and how to do it. Then, there begins an incessant knocking on your door, glancing outside your door, you see a long line of visitors waiting their turn. The line extends outside and wraps around the building, and some visitors are even tapping on your window. You hadn’t noticed, but apparently someone had already gotten inside your office. You wonder…did they actually climb through the window? However they got in, they’re suddenly popping out from behind your chair, shouting and pointing.
If you were present in the workplace before the late 1990’s, before the age of instant messaging, it was ok to wait just a little for somebody to send a reply to you, because, well, you had to wait. But, as technology has improved our ability and availability to receive and respond, so too have we come to expect more and more instant response. Over the last twenty years, as time has warped response time into a narrower window, technology companies and advertisers have been jumping right through that window.
My attention is a commodity, bought and sold, that many tech savvy companies are constantly trying to obtain. In fact, these companies shell out a lot of money to get it. Using my mobile phone, tablets and even desktop computers, they are constantly vying for my attention.
In order to take control of my time, and do things on purpose, I’ve turned off all but the most needed notifications on my mobile devices, and even my desktop PC. Some notifications, like anti-virus will be allowed to interrupt my day, but I don’t even want software updates or other notices for things which I can schedule my time to handle on purpose.
I want to be present for anybody who needs me. But, I only want to be notified on my phone when somebody in person is trying to reach me directly for an actual conversation, like a phone call, or a text message from an established contact, or direct message from somebody I actually know or who may have specific business with me.
Everything else is noise, and I can schedule my time to sift through it in the most efficient way that works for me. Responses and replies can be scheduled, and handled on purpose for a much healthier, happier and more productive work day.
Great read! Thank you for sharing this perspective. So much time is wasted on looking at your phone, just to see what pops up and it is constant as the day is long (during the summer months). I appreciate this alternative and makes complete sense. I think employers will appreciate this as well.