In this Episode…
Today started off as a day of focus. I worked on a big task, attended a training webinar that supports my current goals and then had a meeting about a potential collaboration. It was a morning full of focus. But then I started to run out of steam.
But combine that with allowing myself to get sucked into phone calls I didn’t need to take, and the day runs away.
Listen to this episode to hear what happened.
Episode Show Notes….
Trying To Work All Day Long Is Counter Productive
- Last night I worked late. I found myself trying to fix a problem I’d encountered with setting up my new process for putting together these podcast episodes. I was tired and irritable that I couldn’t seem to fix the problem I was facing. It occurred to me that was because it was late and I was tired. It hit home to me the importance of trying to do the important things in my prime time.
What You Can Do When You Open Too Many Loops
- My plan for the day was to tick off a couple of important tasks one by one. Focus on one until it was done and then move on to the next one. That makes sense in being productive. Unfortunately a training webinar and then a client call interrupted the flow. And finally I received an Amazon notification that a parcel was ready for collection.
- So at one point I had an important task open, I’d finished a client call but had not closed the loop in terms of processing the notes and actions and I had an unopened amazon parcel sat in my office. That meant 3 open loops swilling around my brain. Mmmm – what did I do?
- I ended up sorting out the parcel first (a 5 minute job), I finished the meeting notes and sent them off and then I got on with the task.
Feeling The Steam Escape
- As lunch approached I started to feel the momentum begin to wane and the clarity begin to blur. I am not sure whether that is fatigue or just the natural way my body works these days.
Should I Take Calls During The Day Not Connected With My
Main Thing?
- Today I had 2 calls that took up about 90 minutes of my afternoon. One was personal in nature and the other was professional but not directly relevant to the day’s activities. As I took them I knew they’d be a distraction but there was a part of me desperate to avoid doing the work in the afternoon.
Helping Others Gets Me Into Flow
- One of my most favourite things is helping others handle the productivity challenges they face and guiding them towards behaviours that will serve them better. Today I had a coaching call with a LinkedIn connection. The desire to help others ignites a spark of energy and passion that allows me to serve them better than I am able to serve myself at that time of day.
- In the conversation I had with this coaching client, we identified what puts her in flow, helped create a greater level of efficiency in some of her activities and explored re-ordering her day to tap into the best of her energy to deal with her most demanding tasks.
- A later message from her was most appreciative for helping identify her flow fine tune how she works.
I Let The Day Run Away From Me
- For the last two days I have met my goal of doing my podcast at 1800. Today I won’t start the recording until 2100 – 3 hours later than planned.
- I’d also planned to plow through my emails today… that never happened.
