Our daily lives can be a scramble of urgent tasks. We may experience the constant buzz of incoming texts or the beep of a fresh email.
The problem is that these buzzes and beeps can distract from what is truly important. As we attend to these unimportant aspects of our lives, we lose a sense of what’s of utmost importance.
This is because what seems urgent really isn’t all that important. Those beeps and buzzes are mostly unimportant. As we focus on these sounds, we are distracted from what’s the most important and we end up being unproductive and frustrated.
Say your phone rings and you are writing. Your immediate reflex is to answer the phone because it feels satisfying to answer the seemingly urgent call. Most times, these calls are not urgent, and as we answer the phone, we lose our focus, and it can take us up to 20 or more minutes to get back to our work and see where we left off.
These 20 minutes are lost times of productivity. If we follow this pattern regularly, we may waste many hours a week. Think of how much time you would waste in a month.
The same holds for turning on the TV or news in the morning before you get to your writing. Our mind ends up being distracted by all kinds of different things. The world is truly in a bad space, and all the negativities can cause our focus to be on. The best-case scenario is that we will waste a few hours. But sometimes, we may end up wasting a whole half day or a day of productive work.
We must realize that we can’t get to everything in our lives. We must, therefore, carefully choose what we give our attention to, otherwise we will waste a lot of time.
So, how can we let go of what’s not urgent so that we can make room for what’s crucially important? The key is “not to prioritize what’s on your schedule but to schedule your priorities.” (Stephen Covey)
How can we do that? Well, here are a few ways to do that.
1. Get clear on what’s important in your life and make a list. Make sure that you write the list down and tack it up in a prominent place so that you can see it, especially as you enter your office space where you write.
2. Before you do a task that is not on your important priorities list, pause and ask yourself if this task can wait while you do what’s most important. In other words, does this seemingly urgent task serve your deeper priorities? If it doesn’t, don’t do it. Just let it go.
3. Make your priorities the most important aspects of your life, because they are. Clear your schedule so that you can make time for them. And be sure to schedule them.
This can be hard to do at first. However, with practice and discipline, you can achieve this, and you can be more productive and experience a less frustrating and a better quality of life.
Try it!
Irene Roth
The problem is that these buzzes and beeps can distract from what is truly important. As we attend to these unimportant aspects of our lives, we lose a sense of what’s of utmost importance.
This is because what seems urgent really isn’t all that important. Those beeps and buzzes are mostly unimportant. As we focus on these sounds, we are distracted from what’s the most important and we end up being unproductive and frustrated.
Say your phone rings and you are writing. Your immediate reflex is to answer the phone because it feels satisfying to answer the seemingly urgent call. Most times, these calls are not urgent, and as we answer the phone, we lose our focus, and it can take us up to 20 or more minutes to get back to our work and see where we left off.
These 20 minutes are lost times of productivity. If we follow this pattern regularly, we may waste many hours a week. Think of how much time you would waste in a month.
The same holds for turning on the TV or news in the morning before you get to your writing. Our mind ends up being distracted by all kinds of different things. The world is truly in a bad space, and all the negativities can cause our focus to be on. The best-case scenario is that we will waste a few hours. But sometimes, we may end up wasting a whole half day or a day of productive work.
We must realize that we can’t get to everything in our lives. We must, therefore, carefully choose what we give our attention to, otherwise we will waste a lot of time.
So, how can we let go of what’s not urgent so that we can make room for what’s crucially important? The key is “not to prioritize what’s on your schedule but to schedule your priorities.” (Stephen Covey)
How can we do that? Well, here are a few ways to do that.
1. Get clear on what’s important in your life and make a list. Make sure that you write the list down and tack it up in a prominent place so that you can see it, especially as you enter your office space where you write.
2. Before you do a task that is not on your important priorities list, pause and ask yourself if this task can wait while you do what’s most important. In other words, does this seemingly urgent task serve your deeper priorities? If it doesn’t, don’t do it. Just let it go.
3. Make your priorities the most important aspects of your life, because they are. Clear your schedule so that you can make time for them. And be sure to schedule them.
This can be hard to do at first. However, with practice and discipline, you can achieve this, and you can be more productive and experience a less frustrating and a better quality of life.
Try it!
Irene Roth
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