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You are here: Home / Archives for distractions

Monday Motivational Memo: Staying Motivated

July 25, 2011 by Scott "Q" Marcus Leave a Comment

Before giving in, don’t say “I Won’t,” say “I won’t right now.”

Then wait 10 minutes and see what happens.

Will power is not the ability to say “I’ll never do it.  It’s the ability to say “I won’t do it right now.”

If we can take a few minutes and settle down what’s going on inside us, we have an opportunity to change it. To that end, tell yourself, “I will wait 10 minutes before I decide what to do.” Then, do something, anything, except what you were going to do. Make sure you change your environment – and for goodness sakes – don’t set a timer!

What usually happens is that the feeling passes. We get distracted. We go on to other things. Before we know it, 10 minutes has become 30 or 60. Once we realize how well we’ve done, we have the opportunity to feel good about our success instead of disappointed in giving in.

Even if you then decide to do what you were going to do, at least it’s now a choice and you don’t feel like you’re a victim to your own habits.

Note: Every Monday, a new motivational memo is posted. Subscribers to ThisTimeIMeanIt.com’s coaching service get this – and many more benefits – sent to them directly. If you’d like to know more, follow this link.

Filed Under: Change, goals, Habits, Inspiration, Motivation, Motivational Monday, willpower Tagged With: bad habits, coaching service, distractions, patience, priorities

How to Advance Your Business and Career by Doing Your Own Retreat

May 13, 2011 by Featured Author Leave a Comment

Note from Scott: One cannot separate his/her personal life from his or her business life. Try as you might, if one is not going well, it will spill over into the other. This detailed article, from Tim Richardson, helps you move forward in your career and personal life at the same time.

Here is an idea that can revolutionize your business and your life.

Many organizations have retreats but how many professionals do you know that take time to go offsite and do some thinking and strategic planning about their career and life?

How about planning some meaningful time to go away all by yourself and put some focused effort into your career? This process is commonly called holding a retreat though I like to refer to it as an advance – after all you want to go forward.

Your thinking, concentration ability and focus will be enhanced when you can get away to an environment that is conducive to creative thinking and planning. Find a place where there are no ringing telephones, pending projects, or distractions of other kinds. To maximize your productivity, leave behind your beeper, turn off the ringer on your cell phone, and block out some time where you don’t feel rushed by other commitments. If you completely clear your calendar and don’t call in for messages, your productivity will be greatly improved. I read recently that Bill Gates even copied my idea! Except Bill does a whole week and calls it his “think week”.

He was quoted in USA Weekend:

Ours is a very fast-moving field. You have to be able to step back from it. Many years ago, I decided to take a week every year and absorb myself in thinking many years ahead. I get colleagues to put together what Ph.D. theses I should read, what products I should play with, what memos I should look at. So, it’s been, except for sleeping a little bit, day and night all by myself uninterrupted.

If Bill Gates can do this, I would hope that most of us could find at least one day to spend in proactive thinking and planning. I did my first session on a beautiful remote beach in the panhandle of Florida. I spent some time working on the beach and some inside at the beach cottage I had rented. That one day advance resulted in more career growth and action than any other single thing I have done in my business. Since then, I’ve had a one or two-day session every year. I have done my advances in State Parks, at Bed and Breakfast Inns, on a camping trip, and in hotel rooms. Think of an environment that you enjoy and one that stimulates your creativity. You might try the mountains, a quiet park, at the beach or lakeside. Before you leave, give some thought as to what you want to accomplish on your planning retreat.

Here are some things to consider when you advance: [Read more…]

Filed Under: Articles, Business Goals, Guest Author, planning, Productivity, Special, Success Tagged With: bill gates, business advice, business life, business retreat, commitments, creative thinking, distractions, personal life, personal retreat, productivity, resolutions, strategic planning, tim richardson

“Um, what were we talking about?”

April 13, 2011 by Scott "Q" Marcus Leave a Comment

Pop quiz! What did they call “multitasking” in the eighties?

Answer: “lack of focus.”

I don’t mean to sound like an old fuddy-duddy (of course, using the term “fuddy-duddy” does tend to portray me as such), but like it or not, I am officially of a “certain age.” More times than I care to admit, I have strutted with strong intention into the kitchen, and upon arrival, completely blanked as to why I was there. Or, finding myself looking for an item in the closet, I will be briefly distracted, and forget what I was looking for. I have, embarrassingly enough, “lost” my keys on the way to the door on more than one occasion.

My wife and I have entire conversations without ever using proper nouns.

“Hi Honey, I saw that guy today.”

“Which guy?”

“You know, the man who did the thing around the house last summer.”

“Oh, with the stuff and that equipment?”

“No, the other one. He worked on the what-do-you-call-it with those tools. You know, over by that place…”

“Oh, him! With all that oily gear?”

“Yeah, him.”

“Why didn’t you just say so?”

We’re not trying to be secretive; it’s simply that the words don’t form as quickly as we need so, undeterred, we press on in the language of “pro-noun-cia.” (What’s bizarre is we actually understand each other.) [Read more…]

Filed Under: Baby Boomers, Change, Current Events, humor, mental health, Newspaper Column Tagged With: adam gazzaley, certain age, conversations, distractions, forgetfullness, inspiration, multi-tasking, multitasking, proper nouns, russell a poldrack, strong intention, study

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