Recently, CBS Sunday Morning featured a story on our shrinking attention span. Obviously, this is not a new topic; in fact I’ve been writing about it for years. That said, were a few takeaways and reminders worth highlighting.
Psychologist and attention span researcher, Dr. Gloria Mark, provided an interesting statistic. When her team researched attention spans two decades ago, on average the people in the study shifted attention every two and a half minutes.
I received some great comments on last week’s column on “Think Time.” Although it’s a relatively simple concept, it isn’t that easy to implement consistently. Over time, tight schedules take over and people forget about it, schedule over it, or procrastinate doing it.
The comments triggered a good segue to a directly related theme. One of the factors that differentiates top performers from everyone else: they stay focused on the result. They think about how their work can have the greatest impact on the result. This is an example of think time in action.
My executive clients bemoan the fact that they “can’t get anything done” during the business day, and in fact, “the real work begins after 5:30.” Their schedules are filled with meetings, calls, email and putting out fires.
One study revealed that CEOs average only 6 hours a week working alone. Think about this: the day-to-day “stuff” dwarfs the strategic elements of the job.
At one time or another, entrepreneurial leaders face the challenge of transitioning from “doing the doing” to leading their organizations. Over the years, many of my clients have passed through various stages of this transition, and frankly, it’s not an easy one.
The challenge comes because many entrepreneurial leaders think that no one can do it as well as they can. Their mindset is that it’s their business, they put in the hard work and sweat, and they know what’s best.
Out of nowhere, you receive a surprise. It can be professional or personal, big or small, welcome or not, but a surprise in any case.
If it’s positive, you’re probably feeling pretty good. On the other hand, a negative surprise can knock you out.
We’re approaching Memorial Day weekend in the U.S., which means a three-day weekend for many people and the unofficial beginning of summer. It’s the time to stop and smell the roses, the coffee, the golf course, or whatever makes you take a pause and refresh.
Many of us function at warp speed, and don’t take nearly enough time to reboot, reassess and reflect. This is a good weekend to do so, and hopefully you’ll do something that fits one of those categories.
How prepared are you for the unexpected. “Life happens” – and doesn’t it always seem to do so at the most inopportune times?
You can perfectly plan your schedule, and then life inserts itself, throws you off base, and leaves you bewildered about how this could have happened when you were so well organized.
The “fresh start” perspective of the new year can be a blank slate. Aside from the ubiquitous resolutions, it gives you a chance to refine or modify more subtle things that may need refreshed or enhanced.
Does anything come to mind?
Last time, we looked at four areas of focus as a foundation for good time management when you’ve been promoted into a new managerial role. To review, these include managing priorities, determining needs of your new director reports, managing projects, and fitting in with the pace of the environment.
Today we’ll look at a way you can plan and manage your time through determining the level of importance and urgency for your tasks. This method went into broad based use from Stephen Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.
To set and attain goals is an important process for nearly all high-achieving leaders. Whether you go through a formal process to set and monitor goals, or informally record your aspirations, the desired outcome is the same.
People typically identify tasks or activities as the stepping stones for goal achievement. For example, if you want to achieve a certain revenue number in your department, you can divide that number among your employees resulting in a goal of x dollars per employee.