Stop Chasing Squirrels and Get Focused!

Most of us get an external interruption every 3-4 minutes from email, instant messages, telephone calls, social media, etc.? That’s bad, but there is something even worse that torpedoes our day ...? Internal interruptions!? What do we do to sabotage our own day?? According to some studies, we switch tasks on our computer nearly 600 times a day.? We take 70-100 email curiosity breaks per day.? The reality is that we sabotage our own day chasing squirrels more often than we care to admit!

Distraction Management is an essential skill to learn in today’s age of information overload. Many techniques can assist with this problem, but one we too often overlook is good old-fashioned Daily Planning.

Daily planning is critical if you want to change your life and change your habits.? If your current routine doesn’t include planning, that routine must be broken and reconstructed!? The reality is that very few people take the needed 5-10 minutes that will save them hours, days, weeks, months & years of waste and inefficiency.? Most people just “show up” to work and “dive in.”.? In fact, most people jump right into email, where we become instantly derailed by working on other people's priorities instead of our own. When you have no plan, allowing distractions to control you is incredibly easy.

Many people experience enormous success and focus by taking just five minutes to plan each day. I recommend planning tomorrow’s roadmap toward the end of the day today. If you leave the office at 5:30 p.m., take five minutes at 4:30 p.m. to sketch out your plan for tomorrow. ?

How to Create Your Daily Plan:

As a 25+ year paperless lawyer & consultant, as much as I love technology, I am a massive fan of using some form of paper for planning.? One great tool is a paper-based planning journal.? Keep it open, next to your keyboard, all day so you can look at it when you have the urge to check your email 75 times!? Here is an example of my Tame the Digital Chaos Daily Planning Journal (see here on Amazon).

There are dozens of fantastic planning journals on the market. Some of my favorites are Best Self Journal, Panda, Covey, etc.?

Some people ask me why we should re-write this information on paper if it is already on Outlook's calendar.? There are multiple reasons:

• Taking 5 minutes to write your daily plan serves as a contract with yourself to complete those tasks that day.
• I want that roadmap for the day prominently in front of me so I can always see it. If it is out of sight, it is out of mind.? That means for me that this list is near my keyboard.? If the list is in Outlook, it is minimized most of the day.
• I don’t want to waste a big computer monitor displaying my roadmap. Instead, I use my monitors for more practical functions, like comparing documents or displaying references or subject matter relevant to projects that I am working on.
• The events on my calendar were likely created weeks ago, so they are not freshly on my mind.?
• It is helpful to time-block those events and tasks so you can realistically plan how long each will take you that day.

Another tool you could use is a simple index card. A pack of 100 index cards will cost you less than $3.00. Use one card daily, writing down 3 to 5 tasks you want to accomplish that day. Another way to express this is, “Today is a success if I complete these 3 to 5 tasks.” If you complete those 3 to 5 things, get another card out and write down 3 more tasks!

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