9 ways to tune out office distractions

Office distractions are all around us. And they are getting increasingly more difficult to tune out. There are so many ways our boss, customers and teammates can reach us to break our focus, it makes it challenging to get things done.

Maybe this is why we are all so very busy each and every day. It makes it challenging to get anything done. You get emails, texts, phone calls all day long for so many different people. There are countless meetings on the schedule, so much so that when you are done with calls and meetings it seems you have two hours to get eight hours of work done and mathematically, that just isn’t going to work.

Despite all of the demands and distractions, there are ways to tune them out when you have to get something done. They are not easy and some of them are not for the faint of heart (#1), but I can attest, that these do work. When emails and browsers and phones are on, I get less done. When I am not thoughtful about my plan for the week, I am less focused and productive and when I spend too much time chit-chatting with my boss, clients, or co-workers, I am sure to not meet my missions for the week.

When I am on deadline with something, I am more rigid with this list. When I have more free time, I am less rigid. It’s not perfect, but I can tell you that it works. The first three usually make people shudder (especially the people on my team with two monitors!). But nonetheless, it is important to know what you can do to tune out some of those pesky office distractions. And by the way, it is not rude to have your door closed… Just sayin’.

Shut it down

1. Email off – on busy days, only check email a few times a day

2. Keep that browser off unless it’s part of the deliverable

3. Phone off – let it go voicemall when you’re under work water

Make a plan

4. Create a list of tasks – make sure it has everything on it

5. Assign time to each task – when you’re starting be generout with your estimates

6. Build a schedule – lay it out on a calendar to make sure everything fits

Be disciplined

7. Live it – you must stick to the schedule

8. Short, sweet – Socialize only when you have time

9. Try ‘not now’ – “not now” is different than “no”

–Tracey Parsons, http://www.careerealism.com/office-distractions-tune-out/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+careerealism+%28CAREEREALISM%29