How much time are you wasting every day? With this simple hack, you’ll be able to concentrate on work better, be distracted less and take back control of your life. If you want to gain a better work life balance, this blog post is for you!
We’ve all been there, right? One minute you’re nailing that client work, smashing keywords and hitting goals but the next, your attention is broken by a buzzing on your phone. You’re then pulled away from your laptop screen and are quickly immersed in that Facebook notification from a long lost friend or find yourself scrolling through the Instagram profile of an ex-partner. Maybe you’re out and about enjoying life with family and you get a notification bell in your pocket. It’s an email from a customer and this pulls you out of your happy weekend life, adding stress until you read and reply. We live in a fast paced world where we must have an answer right away and sometimes we feel we must provide an answer, or reply to an email there and then. The reality is, if we respond straight away, people expect a response straight away. Break free from that.
Turn off the notifications on your phone. The email notifications, social media updates, sports app updates from your favourite team, things that break your attention during the day. We read about an experiment which challenged participants to switch off notifications for 24 hours. Whilst there was initial anxiety about FOMO (fear of missing out) there were long term health benefits. Two thirds of the people involved changed their notification settings, reducing their distraction and stress.
Do it now. Even just a couple of apps where you find yourself hugely distracted. This takes back the control from the technology. Look at your emails when you want to. Scroll through social media when you have time. Attend to the things you need to do in a productive and positive way and then catch up with the group chat when you have the time. You’ll feel free and freedom is a good thing.
