Dictate What You Do With Your Time

By Vishal | No Comments

There are so many stimuli in the external world that they tend to keep us from doing what we want. Interruptions cause us to stop in the rhythm of what we are doing causing us to pay attention to something other than what we are doing or want to do. These are random thoughtless things that other people say, do or expect out of you, sometimes purposefully chosen to break your momentum. It’s important to realize that such interruptions gnaw and eat up your time and energy and if not taken care of, can seriously hamper your productivity.

The two major causes of interruptions are phone calls and people calling in person and stopping you in your tracks. Whether it is at home or at office, there are people who will mindlessly wander and interrupt your thoughts just because they seem to have time on their hands to throw.

Let’s consider the second of the two disruptions - people calling in person! These people land up without prior notification or approval and ask a silly question like ‘Am I interrupting you?’ Having been taught the basic courtesies in life, we tend to tell them ‘No, not at all’, as if we obviously have nothing better to do than to entertain them and listen to their problem at hand; which obviously cannot wait.

The other interruption in your thoughts, actions and work comes in the form of an invention – the telephone. These have gotten even more intrusive with the mobile phones becoming so common. When the telephone rings and we go to pick it up, our thoughts are obviously stopped and directed towards the person on the other line of the phone. And for some reason we have had this conditioning that when the phone rings we should stop whatever it is that we are doing to pick the phone before the bell stops to ring. The stupidity of the whole compulsive action makes one wonder why this has become such an accepted norm over the year.

The infamy of these interruptions goes beyond the actual time limit that they last for. After the person visiting you has left or you have finally put down the phone after taking that call, getting back to the momentum that you had built up earlier takes time. You need to focus and regain your thoughts. If you were writing something, you need to read a few of the pages that you have written and then restart the process. It obviously takes time to get back into the rhythm once again.

There are obviously things that you may need to attend to at times in between your work. But does that mean that you will fall prey to all disruptions that come your way and give into them. Maybe it is time to appropriate your time as your own resource and learn to politely say no to those who thoughtlessly bother you at a time when you are busy!

Posted in Success

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