How a Whole Day of Focus Can Make You Less Distracted and More Productive

What would it feel like to have an hour, morning, or even a whole day with no meetings on your calendar? What if that time also included no phone calls, texts, or emails? For some, it may feel like bliss. For others, it may induce anxiety. We have become so conditioned to full schedules and a barrage of visual and auditory notifications that the notion of nothing has become foreign. Taking time away from meetings and never-ending messages can help calm your mind and help you tap into your innate creativity.

Gary

If your calendar looks like the majority of other people, it is full of meetings, appointments, and different commitments. Your email has messages awaiting a response, and you probably received a text within the past hour. Either digitally or a notepad, there is a running list of tasks that need completion. In short, your life is hectic. Like most people, you probably feel like you can never get ahead. This feeling is draining.

The endless cycle of busyness will never end if you do not do something that maybe feel a bit radical, that is scheduling untouchable focus time each week. During this period, you eliminate all distractions, including your phone, email, and texts. Taking time to focus may seem impossible, but in reality, unless you are an Emergency Department physician or someone in a similar position, life will go on perfectly fine while you are in your focus space.

The reality is that life will be perfectly fine if you take an hour, part of the day, or even the whole day in the space of undistracted focus. If you are worried that colleagues or clients will be upset that you are not responding to their messages, create an out of office message ensuring that you will be in touch the next day.

Over time you will realize that all of the perceived emergencies that crop up during the day are not indeed emergencies; they are simply distractions that can be tended to in due time. You will discover that the real crises are very few and far between, and most times, your team members and colleagues have everything under control, but have become accustomed to soliciting your input.

The benefits of scheduling untouchable focus time are numerous, including these immediate effects:

•   Increased productivity, innovation, and creativity.

•   Increased confidence realized within your team and colleagues.

•   Reduce stress and calm the mind.

In the beginning, you may feel some pushback, either in your mind or from your team. However, over time it will be apparent that taking time without any distractions, to entirely focus on a project, your to-do list, or to look at new ways of tackling day-to-day issues is beneficial to all. Even at first, if the only benefit is feeling less stressed, distracted, and more in control of your life.

Untouchable focus days are not only for leaders. By encouraging your teams to take a few hours each week to focus, you will find that they will receive the same benefits. The increase in productivity, innovation, and mental wellbeing will pay off in spades for the entire organization

Gary Vice is sought out by leaders in Software and Services who recognize the need to attract the industry’s best talent.  Through Strategic Recruiting Partners’ extensive network of relationships, they are able to identify high level opportunities for well qualified candidates.  To discover how this process can benefit your job search, simply call Gary at 469.402.4008.