TIME-Out!
Turn off your cell phone. Shut down your e-mail. Take five minutes this morning and grab last week's issue of TIME magazine. In particular, you'll want to turn to page 72 to find the article, "Help! I've Lost My Focus." I suspect you won't be surprised to read that e-mail and cell phones have helped us multi-task, but they have also driven us to complete distraction. That's bad. What's worse is how long it takes us to refocus on work once we are distracted.
The authors cite research undertaken by the University of California at Irvine. Researchers tracked office workers and recorded how they spent their time minute by minute. The results? Researchers found that workers devoted just 11 minutes to a project before they were interrupted by a phone call, e-mail, or drop by visitor. Once the workers were interrupted, they required, on average, 25 minutes to return to their original task.
What's the solution? One psychiatrist offers three: prioritize ruthlessly, set aside 30 minutes a day for thinking, relaxing or meditating, and seek out significant opportunities to connect face-to-face with other people. By the way, while connecting with others, turn off your darn BlackBerry!
And, while you're looking at TIME, make sure you find the charts, "Making the Most of Your Day . . . And Best Use of the Night," which illustrate how morning people and night owls can make the most out of their waking hours.
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