What do Facebook, email, text messages and Perez Hilton all have in common? They are great distractors from getting real work done. If you’re like me, you’ll be in the middle of working when out of nowhere you’ll wonder if someone has commented on the funny picture you just posted on FB. So you open a new browser tab, go to facebook and thirty minutes later you’re not sure how you quite got to looking at your prom date’s profile and wondering what if….
So if you ever feel like you should be getting more work out of the time that you put into your work, here’s a way I’ve found to get a very solid and productive hour of work:
1) close all browser tabs not related to what I am working on. so no interruptions from gmail or facebook can happen.
2) exit out of Skype and IM clients so no interruptions from friends or questions from coworkers.
3) put my phone on airplane mode so no text messages or phone calls to interrupt
4) set a timer on my phone for 60 minutes and start working
60 minutes sounds like a long time but i’m always surprised how quickly it passes. the hour is always very productive and my level of concentration very high. and to reward myself, i move on to the final step:
5) immediately undo steps 1-4 and see what you missed in the world while you were being productive 🙂
a meal with basil 