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Make things better by making better things.
It takes 23 minutes to get back into the flow of something after every interruption. This is astounding if you think about it.
But the problem isn’t the time it takes to get back on track, it’s the amount of times we get interrupted. During the typical work day, the average person will be interrupted 82 times.
How in the world is anything ever supposed to get done?
If you are looking for a significant advantage, here’s a tip:
Block out one hour a day of interruption free time. Turn off the phone, log off your email, shut the door.
What could you accomplish in a 60-minute sprint?
The second problem we run into is this, many of us are very uncomfortable with dead space, time to ourselves with our own thoughts. As a result, we seek distractions to fill the day, to give us something to do. Falling behind creates urgency and is a motivator to do the banal.
When is the last time you sat for five minutes and did nothing?
Sounds agonizing? Because it is.
We have to understand, there are selfish marketers that are working extremely hard to steal your attention. Facebook is designed to keep you on the hook. We are inundated with tens of thousands of ads per day.
Yet, there’s hope. The internet is a ratchet to help us leverage the wisdom of crowds, the means of production is in our hands. But too often, we use it to watch cat videos.
Attention is the most precious resource we can give. We can share it with the people around us to connect, we can give it to our work to make great change happen. Don’t squander it to pass the time.
If you say yes to this, you are going to have to say no to something else. You’ll never regret the decision to do work that lifts those around you.
Less Fortnight. More art.