Is your work environment keeping you from working?

Here is a short excerpt from an article by Harold Taylor. Harold Taylor is a time management and productivity expert.

Change your environment in some way to offset your natural inclination to avoid doing things you dont like.

You can minimize destractions:

• turn off your cellphone,
• disengage voicemail,
• turn off email alerts and
• close your office door at specific times while you work on your priority projects.

image by Jason-Salmon

You can minimize visual distractions:

• remove all clutter and other potential distractions from your immediate work area
• including any in-baskets, they give you an excuse to chat with the person dropping off paper
• dont have family photos or memorabilia in your line of sight
• face a blank wall, not a window or open doorway.

You can set-up a work schedule:

• Work on projects for 60 or 90 minutes at a time maximum.
• Then change to another type of work for 15 minutes
• Work on a project for 60-90 minutes
• Then take a 30 minute break, doing something completely different from your previous work
• Work for 60 monre minutes on a project

If you find thats too long to postpone urges to interrupt yourself, shorten the work sessions. You can always increase them gradually later. Between sessions you can check email, return phone calls and grab a coffee. Work in short sprints rather than attempt marathons. Research shows that it takes a lot of energy to practice willpower.

Resist the temptation to interrupt yourself

Do what you can to develop a work environment that makes it easier to resist the temptation of interrupting yourself or others, checking email constantly, grabbing for your smartphone whenever theres a call or being distracted by other things.

To subscribe to his monthly newsletter on Time Management go to www.taylorintime.com

Julie Stobbe is a Trained Professional Organizer and Lifestyle Organizing Coach who brings happiness to homes and organization to offices, in person and virtually. She enjoys working with her clients to provide customized organizing solutions to suit their individual needs and situation. She reduces clutter, streamlines processes and manages time to help her clients be more effective in reaching their goals. Julie can coach you to break-free of the physical or emotional clutter constraining you from living life on your terms.

Contact her at julie@mindoverclutter.ca

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