Time Management & Digital Distractions
Arlene Cohen Miller
AV Rated Attorney, Professional Certified Coach & Work-Life Balance Coach bringing a wealth of training and experience to help women compassionately lead themselves and create the life that works and feels right to them.
Do you want to structure and manage your time more effectively, completing important tasks and projects in a timely, professional manner? ?
Then step one is to eliminate digital distractions that needlessly waste your time and cause added stress and brain fog in your life.
The solution is easy. Applying it can be challenging.
Why?
Scrolling through social media, checking texts, emails, and what’s happening on your favorite Apps is addictive.? There’s an endorphin rush and a feeling of connectivity associated with these activities, or you wouldn’t engage in them.?
Five minutes become fifteen, then forty-five and you’ve lost a chunk of time during your day.
Digital interruptions hijack your productivity, break your concentration, and interrupt the flow of thoughts, insights, and ideas that make you uniquely you.
Creativity flows best in a quiet, supportive work environment where you feel fresh, focused, and relaxed, where you’ve blocked off time and the distractions of the world so you can do the work that requires your immediate time and attention.
Finishing a task or project or the chunk of a task or project that you set aside for today creates an endorphin rush, as well.
And, this one isn’t transient.
It supports your productive, positive self for the rest of the day. It lays the foundation for future productive, positive moments in all areas of your life.
Your body-mind remembers the feeling of success, and no one can take that away from you.
Because social media, texts, emails, and your favorite Apps are an addiction, it’s not unusual to experience withdrawal symptoms similar to stopping smoking, gaming, drinking coffee, or consuming sugar.?
Have a plan in place in case you experience headaches, irritability, or fatigue.
Your ego and/or your body want that fix.? You need something to replace the addiction until you retrain yourself to say no and stay positive during your productivity blocks of time.
?
Here are a few suggestions:
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Breathe in through your nose and out through your nose with the out-breath longer than the in-breath, and do this at least ten times. This physiologically takes your body out of fight-or-flight response and into rest and relax mode.
Take a 2-minute break, go outside, and breathe fresh air. Appreciate your feet on the ground and feel yourself fully present in your body and grateful for your life.
Remember something you’re grateful for: someone you love, a fun time you recently enjoyed, or anything that helps you focus on the bright side of life.
?
It’s amazing how quickly the body and mind adapt when you are determined to implement a new way of approaching time management that engenders success.
Success that supports your mental, emotional, and physical health, and positively changes how you feel about yourself.
During the transition phase, remember to be kind, patient, and tolerant with yourself.
If you fall back into that old way of being, review what happened. ?
Ask yourself:
Why did I fall back into this pattern and program?
What did I learn about myself?
What could I do differently next time?
How would that look and feel?
Then visualize it and know it to be true.?
Feel and know that this is who you are now, committed, confident, and self-assured. This is the productivity, time-management path that works best for you.