Today I’d like to offer some simple, yet challenging, tips to make this year a big year for you—both in and out of your office. I see that the #1 challenge for people in my coaching program is staying focused amid day-to-day distractions and to-dos.
Studies show that the average businessperson gets interrupted once every eight minutes! These multiple interruptions create what I call “the swarm.” I’m talking about the deluge of emails, voice mails, texts, faxes, meetings and more that we encounter every workday.
This certainly is enough to interrupt anyone’s focus, but I’m really talking here about a bigger picture. Not only do you have to focus on what you’re doing right now, today, but also you need to stay focused on your goals, performance and self-improvement so you can do what you do better over the long haul.
Take back control! Here are my 5 simple tips for overachieving this year.
1. Limit email usage. Email is the #1 time-consumer for most people today. It is the “electronic tiger” that you just can’t tame. However, you can limit the times you wrestle with the email tiger. During your business day, get into the habit of only checking your email at 10 a.m., 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. If you wanna check it before and after work, have at it! But don’t check email continuously throughout the day! In fact, close your email program so you won’t get distracting notifications. Plan on spending about 30 minutes dealing with messages during each of your three regularly scheduled checks. Scheduling 30-minute “email appointments” at 10, 2 and 4 puts you back in control of the email beast.
2. Review your goals monthly. Most people write down their goals in January and never review them until they stumble upon the document in September or October or, worse, run into problems. Too often, goal setting is an exercise we do once a year; we don’t use it as a tool for staying focused on what we want to accomplish. Review your goals at least monthly. As we suggested in our previous Point, put your goals in places where you’re sure to see them often. Tape them to the bathroom mirror; put them above your visor in your car. You could even make your goals your screensaver.
3. Openly discuss your performance on a regular basis. Assess progress and/or performance at least once a month, if not more often, with your boss, employees and coach. Don’t make performance discussions into once-a-year arguments. This assessment should be an open, ongoing discussion. Here’s the catch: You can’t be defensive when discussing your progress. A defensive attitude is a barrier to hearing what you need to hear regarding your performance and how you can do better. Make the process conversational and interactive.
4. Learn a new skill and/or improve a current one. We live in an ever-changing world. Be a part of that change! Learn a new skill or become even better at something you already know. It can be technology based, industry related, product focused, you name it—just get better.
5. Develop your communication skills. The best communicators continue to be the ones who rise to the top—of everything from a company to a country. Studies show that effective communication skills are the #1 way to move up the ladder. No matter what you might think about President Obama, he’s an effective communicator and those communication skills helped get him elected. The same is true in business. An executive’s capability to sell a vision or to convince people to change the way they work depends upon that executive’s ability to persuade people to follow his or her lead. Bottom line: The best communicators win the prizes in life.
Corsini’s Point:
These five tips are fairly straightforward, but they are vitally important to overachieving this year and every year. Tame the email tiger with regularly scheduled “feedings,” and you’ll take back a significant amount of time each day. Keep your goals top of mind, and review them often. Address performance on a regular basis (and make the discussion conversational, not confrontational). Learn a new skill this year—or improve something you’re already good at doing. And finally, continuously refine your communications skills. You never know when you’ll need to speak up; so get ready, and be ready. Make these five tips a part of your everyday routine, and you’ll do what you do better.
“Ordinary people think merely of spending time. Great people think of using it.”
— author unknown