SCORE
YOUR BUSINESS GOALS
-- Mar. 23/07
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In
This Issue…
-
Business
Goals
-
Tip:
How to Reduce Distractions
-
Humour:
How to Tell If You’re a CrackBerry
Addict
Business
Goals
What
are your business goals this year?
Are
they written down? Is the list close at hand?
There
are so many distractions in the office nowadays,
that it is now harder than ever
to focus on the tasks at hand.
I
spoke with the leader of a technology business recently for 30
minutes. He had arranged
a private meeting room so we wouldn’t be interrupted because
there was
a lot of information we had to exchange in a short period of
time.
A
few minutes into the conversation, he looked down in his
pocket. As he was
speaking
a few minutes later, he repeated the looks into his pocket.
He then
took
a mobile device out of his pocket and put it on the meeting
table. Soon
afterwards,
it buzzed again. One time the phone rang, and he excused
himself
for
a few minutes to tell the caller that he would be there when
his current
meeting
was over.
All
in all, there were about 8 interruptions. They lasted
maybe 3 minutes in total, but
the total loss of time and focus was probably closer to 5 or 6
minutes for him, and
for me. That’s 20% of the meeting lost due to
distractions – the main reason he
had chosen the private meeting room in the first place.
When
you start considering the potential loss of time in your day,
look at the
distractions
caused by modern technology.
Between
emails, cell phones and instant messaging, many employees are
becoming
more reactive
than they ever were.
Meanwhile,
to score your business goals, you need to focus on what the
goals are, and
you need to be proactive
in going about achieving those goals.
If
you want to accomplish more this year in less time, then
consider reducing the number
of distractions in your day.
===========================
Tip: Reduce
your Distractions
===========================
To become even more productive,
focus on your important tasks. Then avoid
all
distractions.
Like
most things, this is much easier said than done.
The
client I worked with last summer had a very strong culture of
always being
connected.
Employees used Sametime, a
software program which allowed
instant
messaging between everyone in the 49,000-employee company.
They
also
each had laptops which they were encouraged to bring to every
meeting.
They
argued that having all the information on hand increased
productivity.
I
would argue that some meetings were far from productive.
Often, when someone asked
a question, few people were listening. One time, we took
a vote with 9 people
in the room. The vote was 2 to 1 in favour
of the proposition.
Whatever culture has been established in your business,
consider the effects
of
email, cell phones, instant messaging and other possible
distractions on
your
productivity.
Take
30 minutes to reflect. Turn off all possible devices, or
at least turn off
the
signaling power of the devices so that you won’t be
distracted.
Consider
a personal policy that will make you more productive.
Perhaps
only
checking e-mail once an hour would keep you from losing focus.
(Have
you checked it since you started reading this newsletter?
How many
times?)
Your
personal policy should cover:
a)
how
often to check e-mail
b)
what
you are going to do so you can’t be interrupted – eg.
Put cell phone on Silent
c)
what
interruptions you will allow, when you will allow them, and
who you will allow them from
It’s
been said that distractions can cause our IQ to fall by 10-15
points. So
keeping
focused will improve our brain power, as well as increasing
the time
we
have to complete our tasks.
Leaders
are proactive. Be a leader. Take a proactive
stance today, and
reduce
the number of distractions you’ll allow!
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Humour:
How to Tell If You’re a Crackberry
Addict
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I
was reading the National Post, one of
Canada
’s major business papers, yesterday morning,
and the article mentioned the term “CrackBerry
Addict”. It refers to people
who have an overwhelming reliance on their BlackBerry.
While it was a new
term to me, I found references to the term in other articles
from early 2005.
With
all due respect to Letterman, here is the SHM Consulting’s
list of
top
5 ways to determine if you’re a “CrackBerry
Addict”:
-
You
sleep with the BlackBerry
under your pillow.
-
You
can’t make it through a 5-minute conversation without
checking your Blackberry – twice
-
Wherever
you go – the opera, your child’s play, the
hockey game – it goes.
-
Your
emails are always the short form, so as to reduce
keystrokes.
1.
When your spouse threatens to turn it off, you get angrier
than a dog losing its bone!
