As a new week peeks over the horizon, I reflect back on what I was able to accomplish in the previous week and ... WHEW! I'm exhausted! There was a LOT on my list and I am happy to say...I did it!
In contrast, a colleague of mine whom I was speaking to yesterday evening advised me that he had the worst week in a while and got very little checked of his own TO DO list. This wasn't the first time hearing this from the same person and as the conversation progressed, I immediately became aware of the flaw in his week and why he was continuously showing little results for such long hours spent online every week.
SHINY OBJECTS
As yes, the shiny objects that are hurled at us hundreds, if not thousands, of times a day. Articles, Emails, Blogs, Advertisements, TV, Podcasts, New Inventions, New Ideas, and just News in general are all responsible for taking us off the path each and everyday. You see, my friend was spending to much time doing what I call 'veining' and chasing shiny objects. He start out on one clear and distinct task at the start of each day, but as the day wears on, he is lured off his path into a never ending trail of 'veins' which break off in different directions, all unrelated to and pulling him away from the important task.
Photo Credit: jurvetson on Flickr
His attention is peaked and off he goes on some new idea or some interesting news story and POOF before he knows it , that #1 item on the TO DO list is still sitting there half baked at the end of the day.
Sound familiar? We all do this, don't we? Get lured away and find our day taken from us by YouTube Videos, forums and endless emails? It seems so hard to resist the urge to just take a little break. The problem is these little breaks too often turn into day breaks and before we know it, the week is a loss.
So my little piece of wisdom to you this Monday is to stay focused on today's task at hand. We all woke up with our check list. Let's work to do nothing else today except to GET IT DONE! Avoid the news, make an effort to limit your email activity to a half hour tops, and just power through it. Keep that TO DO list in sight and when you find yourself veining off, just stop and refocus. And, when tomorrow comes...repeat.
I would bet you will be twice as productive as you imagined.
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