I’m usually not easily distracted, how about you?
Yet I am super distracted by snow – it may be the anticipation of awesome skiing or the feeling of being inside a snow globe.
Distractions – even glorious ones – don’t make good leadership companions.
Here are three things know to b true of my snowy Friday work day, as my gaze would travel to my office window and the beautiful snow filled view….
- my train of thought was derailed: regardless if I was involved in a conversation, working on a spreadsheet, doing something mentally engaging… *poof* off track! The crazy thing is I didn’t even know it was happening at first.
- I didn’t want to DO anything: motivation sapping beauty in my case – but I know it’s true when I’m worried as well. It was tough to force myself to start something (then see #1 as it applied to getting back to things as well).
- problem solving skills were lacking: by late afternoon I noticed that the combination of #1 and #2 meant I was less apt to quickly solve problems. Everything took, what felt like (at the time), an extraordinary amount of mental effort.
It made me wonder about all of the technological things in our worlds that beep, ghost view over, ring, flash… distract us every moment of every day.
How much more effective would you be if they went away?
OH not the work associated with them (that ‘s called retirement), but the distraction of them. The pull of your gaze and mental focus away from that thing you WERE working on.
Let’s turn them off and keep our thoughts on track – motivation high – and problem solving sharp!