How to Stay Ruthlessly Focused So Your Productivity is Maxed

P.S. I told you I would tell you how I deal with each of the distractions I mentioned at the top of this email….like email, text, telephones, voice mail, instant messenger, and the plain old lure of the internet.

By now, you probably know the answer:

I am so consumed with achieving my goal…just like a runner who is so consumed with winning Olympic gold that if a stray dog were to run next to them and bark at them to stop and play, then would ignore the dog, and continue running to achieve their goal of winning Olympic Gold.

That’s how I do it. I know exactly what I want.

And I work each day on those things that will get me closer, and block out those things that will not.

For example: email: answer email 2 times per day 12 noon, and 4 PM. JUST DON’T OPEN YOUR EMAIL BROWSER

It’s just like food….don’t want to munch on M&M’s during the day…you don’t open the bag. Better yet, you don’t buy the bag in the first place. You have to control your environment, instead of your environment controlling you.

text: leave the phone in a different room when working

phone: ditto

voice mail: ditto

instant messenger: don’t use it. Some people think it’s a time saver. It’s not. I tried it for a few months. Everytime I used it is was a waste of my time. Just about everything could have been done with 3 emails. 12 noon today, 4 PM today, 12 noon tomorrow. Oh, you say, that means your subscriber or client or outsourced worker has to wait 24 hours to get their problem solved. Look, who’s time is it anyway? Theirs…or mine?

Lure of the internet: willpower – turn it off if you can’t resist.

Look, by now you are really seeing how I am able to be so productive. I am ruthless with my time. It’s my time. Not anyone else’s. So it is my choice to be in control of my time. And if let 100 people who have questions that can wait 4 hours, if I let texts that can wait 4 hours, if I let telephone calls that can wait 4 hours to control me….then that is shame on me.

And same thing with you.

It is your responsibility to control your actions during the day.

If you do, and you set goals, action plans, then do the actions, and strategically ignore the distractions… you can be successful. If you are willing to make the hard choices, to simply eliminate or control what is controlling you…you are choosing to NOT be successful.

It’s your choice.