Are you really Working, or are you just occupying your time?
That’s the question I often ask myself and I sometimes ask people as well. I am not afraid of challenging myself, even debating with myself my own decisions. I am a Gemini, so I justify this attitude of mine by saying that we are actually two, so it’s a great and continuous dialogue.
Anyway, there some different ways to make sure to perform well in front of that question:
What are the main distractions that make you lose time?
Answering emails, checking chats and other social networks with the mirage of “being active = being reachable”, these are called Ecstasy: they make you feel proud, but with no real results to be proud of.
You may argue saying that you are supposed to answer emails: but it’s really wort it? How many emails are not worth an answer, or they may be liquidated with a short email, declining your involvement into the discussion or simply giving requested data in a quick and short form (so to reduce misunderstanding risks).
When you really need to answer to an email, ask yourself first “What kind of results I want to achieve from these email?”. You have no idea how many emails with fire and acid I read between people that were trying to get ahead of the others, sometimes to avoid responsibilities and other just to prevail in a sterile conversation.
That was lost time. And back at that moment of my life, I thought that I was being part of the conversation by reading those, but I forgot to ask myself
“In what way I am involved into this conversation? Am I really involved?”
Another thing about emails is that reading them in the morning is usually pointed out as lost time BUT this is not always true. The main thing, is to not keep yourself active in answering emails, otherwise they risk to become a chat, and not an organized and proactive communication.
The second tip, is that you should keep a timer or give yourself specific range to work: I do not believe anymore to people that says that they work with no pauses for hours and hours, especially in front of monitors.
How many attention are they losing by not making pauses?
Or how much time are they spending in front of the monitor, with no productivity attached?
There’s a trick, called “the Tomato trick” where you work on a 30 minutes base, with 25 minutes of intense and focused work with 5 minutes of pause (toilet, coffee, topping up water and so on). After three of these cycles, you make a longer break, of 15 minutes to potentially fix things in the office, home or anywhere else.
This following image clearly explains what I am talking about
The last (BONUS) tip, is something more personal. Something that is very hard to find at the beginning.
Some people, just for being in front of a computer doing things, think that they are working and producing. But the question is: In which way, what I am doing, can really bring benefit and results to me and my team?
Am I just wasting my time, keeping myself busy with unnecessary tasks?
What would say a professional in this field I am working into, about the work that I am doing? Would him/her consider well invested time or mere Pindaric flights?
I am telling you that, since I see people totally immersed in that kind of approach and not just into work, but into their whole life, trying to escape from some schemes with the same approach that contributed to create them.
To break the scheme you first need to break the habits that generated it. And them push hard in the correct direction, with a clever plan to reach the goals.
