The Value of Uninterrupted Time

How often are you interrupted? Whether you work in an office, in the home or in a factory; try a little experiment and see just how many minutes it takes before you hear a bell, beep, buzz or "Do you have just a minute?" For the average person, that time is about 5-15 minutes. That is a lot of interruptions in a day's time. How are you expected to focus and stay on task? How are you expected to have deep thoughts and meditate on the important? The fact is if you are so use to being interrupted, you may have a hard time focusing on a given task for very long because you mind becomes "wired" towards jumping from thing to thing.

Find some time where you can just think. Shut off the interruptions. Get away from the noise and concentrate. You might ask, "What do I need to think about?" Consider the following ideas:

• What are the most important things that I need to accomplish today that would have the greatest impact in my work, relationships and self rings? When am I going to get them done? How will I get them done?


• Brainstorm a specific project and break it down into it's individual parts


• What one key thing did I learn about today? Write it down in a journal or blog about it


• What are my goals? What one or two things would I like to accomplish today, this week, this month, this year, in my lifetime? Write them down and then determine how and by when you will accomplish them


• Ponder spiritual matters


• Consider a relationship that is important to you. What does that relationship mean to you? What are the one or two things that you could do to build that relationship?

There are many more things that you could think about. This list is just intended to get your mind going. And that is exactly the point – Get your mind going. Get out of the shallow, reactive, "how am I going to quickly reply" mode and into the mode of focused, intentional, deep thinking – at least occasionally. The quality of your work and life will increase as a result.

Working Mom Ringmasters

Not long after Juggling Elephants was published, we had a reviewer of the book comment that they would add a 4th ring to their circus-their home. She went on to explain that while she had the standard 3 rings of work/self/relationships, she also had the passion to insure that her home was a warm and inviting place for her family. Her sentiments are echoed by many "working moms" in our society today.

Salary.com had a recent article where they offered 12 strategies for working moms. While the tips are timeless, the writer (Heather Dugan) does a marvelous job of connecting to the specific situations faced by working (outside the home) mothers.

Read the tips by clicking here.

What If You Lost All Your "A" Performers?

There was a rare occurrence in the world of college basketball a couple of weeks ago. The national champion team for 2012, the University of Kentucky, had every one of its starting 5 announce that they are leaving college early for the NBA. How's that for a change in the lineup? Coach John Calipari's ability to keep getting a standing ovation from the UK fans will surely be tested next year.

If you work in a "team" environment, it is our hope that you will never have to face such a daunting challenge. The scenario does highlight a more common issue that occurs in the workplace-what to do if your star performer(s) leave. To help prevent a "rebuilding year" for your office or organization, put these "plays" into action now:

• Take every opportunity to let your performers know how much you appreciate their efforts and how they contribute to the organization in a unique and vital way.
• Work hard to improve the performance of your mediocre performers and don't allow them to consistently miss meeting your (realistic) expectations. Nothing brings a team down more than the high performers seeing that mediocrity is condoned.
• Be vigilant about recognizing a "rookie's" interest in learning more about how things work in the organization. He/She may be on your starting team one day, and the better prepared they are now, the less time you will have to spend with them before sending them into the game.

Lastly, be meticulous about remembering what you have done that has created your team of champions. You can then apply those same strategies when training the next recruit...just hopefully not a whole team at one time.

Biting Off More than You Can Chew

I can remember when the gum, Bubble Yum was introduced in 1975 by LifeSavers.  Prior to that, as a young man, I wasn't a big bubble gum customer.  But, when Bubble Yum came out, I was hooked.  It was the first soft bubble gum made and came in big, thick, flavorful pieces.

One day as a little leaguer, I bought a pack at the baseball diamond "snack shack" just before a game.  Now, I had watched a number of "big league" games and had noticed that "big league players" always chewed a wad of what I naively thought was bubble gum.  So wanting to be like them, I unwrapped the whole pack of Bubble Yum and shoved each piece in my mouth.  Well, the results weren't pretty.  I had a hard time talking, I was drooling bubble gum juice down the front of my uniform, my jaw hurt and eventually my Mom walked over to the dugout (much to my embarrassment) and told me to spit my gum out because I looked like, "a cow chewing its cud."

"Biting off more than you can chew" when it comes to taking on too many tasks, assignments, goals, etc. can be disastrous as well.  It is easy to confuse all the things that you "can do" with all the things that you "should do" or better yet that you "choose to do."  You can't juggle elephants!  It is impossible.  You need to be selective with what you take on and where you put your focus since you have limited time and resources.  Focus on the important things and don't blow it – pun intended.

Saying "No" To Fun

A national survey on "fun" was recently conducted by the Trident Fun Index (yes, the same people who make Trident brand gum). Some of their findings include:

• 19% can not remember the last time they had a good time
• Less than 18% take the opportunity to do something fun each day
• 55% strongly agree that their fun is limited by the amount of money they have
• The top US cities having fun are Atlanta and New York

While Trident hopes to leverage the results to remind consumers that even a stick of gum can offer a moment of fun, the numbers highlight how so many people simply won't take a few moments out of their day for what we call an "intermission." These fun moments need not be costly, but the the cost of not taking them include increased stress and decreased productivity.

What are you doing today to have a little fun?