By Evan Vitale
There are probably a million thoughts running through every business owners’ mind as we enter the final months of 2016. Budget; sales goals; upcoming holidays and, oh, let’s not forget the election! Oh, my!
You, as the business owner or operator, need to set the standard and the example for your team of keeping focused and working on the important tasks at hand. If you become distracted, then your staff will become distracted as well.
While the holidays can certainly be a big distraction for anyone (we’ll save this topic for another blog post), here are some easy-to-follow tips for staying focused while at work:
- Avoid checking Facebook and other social media networks. A business colleague of mine does a personal Facebook update in the morning (or at night); scans posts and shares from his family and friends and stays off all social media platforms during regular business hours. “It’s a total time and productivity suck,” he says. “If you start scanning Facebook, you’ll find yourself quickly commenting here and there; sharing pictures; watching videos and someone will send you an instant message which turns into a 15-minute back-and-forth online discussion, all of which doesn’t help improve your business or your bottom line.”
- Avoid checking e-mail. This is also a big distraction and moves you away from the task at hand to answering an e-mail you just received. A good rule is to check e-mail at lunch and at the end of the day.
- Avoid text messages and other cell phone distractions. Yes, people are going to call you, but do you grab your cell phone every time it “buzzes” to check updates; text messages; e-mails, etc.?
It will be hard to re-train your brain on these distractions as you’ll probably so used to reaching for your cell phone every time it beeps or buzzes. Try to turn off notifications as much as possible or even (gasp!) turning off your e-mail and mobile devices when you really need to focus and complete tasks on time.
You can do it!