Focused Business Action

Call Recording

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Notes from the call

Staying on task

• Use a timer or software program which rings alarm at different intervals. I suggest ½ hour intervals because its enough time to get in a groove, but not enough time that if you get off track you haven’t wasted too much time
  • Mindfullness bell – small software program you load on your computer which will ring either a bell of mindfulness or (for the more conventional) Westminster chimes. The bell can be set to go off on the hour, the quarter hour, or randomly. The bell sounds and trails off for about a minute, and the idea is to stop what you’re doing and listen to it until you can’t hear it anymore.
  • LeechBlock – Firefox add-on for specific websites during certain hours or for a set amount of time
  • For those who are truly Internet addicts, there is a Firefox add-on called Page Addict, that offers a solution to limit the your time the web and It even records where you’ve been and for how long.
  • Time-out for Mac
  • More Mac suggestions here and there are some PC suggestions in the comments on that page
• Set your browser preferences to block images, Flash or Java applications and avoid a lot of distractions.
• Only one window open at a time
• Place on your monitor a Post-it note with your current project or task. When the timer goes off, ask yourself W.A.I.T. (Why Am I Typing?).

Email

• Try to have two separate email accounts – one for personal and one for your professional life.
• Use anti-spam filtering, so that your Inbox only contains real messages.
• Create folders
• Define filters, labels or rules – move as much stuff out of your Inbox as possible, the only thing left in your Inbox should be general stuff that doesn’t belong anywhere else
• Color-code emails (in Internet Explorer)
• Create task reminder if putting in a folder and need to deal with email later
• Mark as unread or flag it if need to get back to email
• Drop your subscription to e-zines if getting too many (how many is too many? – 3)
• Unsubscribe from Yahoo groups
• Check email only on predefined schedules. Set your Taskbar to auto-hide. Check email at predetermined fixed times only. You can define recurring alerts on your phone, or calendar to remind you to check email

Instant Messaging

• Separate accounts for home and work.
• Go invisible! Most IM programs allow you to go “invisible” – you’ll still be online and can receive messages from people who really want to contact you.
• Disable sound alerts and popups. First thing you should do when installing an IM program is to disable the alert notifications.

Social Media

• Do not check while at work (unless it’s part of your job or your marketing strategy).
• Go to your settings page and get very picky about what notification email it is allowed to send you.

Getting away from the computer

• First of all, if you have a reason to be at the computer, be doing that item. Otherwise, step away from the computer.
• Decide that there is no wasting time on the computer unless that’s what you have chosen to do.
• Take a break ( for heaven’s sake)
• No Internet after a set time in the evening; it’s too stimulating and will keep you up
• If you really can’t keep yourself away, unplug the computer altogether to remove temptation. It works surprisingly well.

For those of you who enjoyed this class, please consider taking another class from me. You will find my class offerings here .