Time Management: Distractions, Distractions

Another entertaining post from Cat Wentworth about putting my Time Management for Creative People series into action. This time she’s talking about the dangers of distraction:

For instance, I get thirsty.

Yes, I know. We all get thirsty so please bear with me …

I head for the kitchen where the watercooler is. By the patio door. So far, so good. But today, I took a right turn out the door to answer a buzzing dryer. Half hour disappears. I have clothes folded, a new lot in the washer and dryer. And the mail read.

(note to self: turn off buzzer)

Or how about making a cuppa.

Once more, I head for the kitchen. I glance outside. A plant needs rescuing. The next hour? Spent repotting plants, pointing a hose at the green and enjoying cool water on my feet.

(is there such a thing as mid-life ADD?)

As a writer, I find this painfully funny. It reminds me of one of my favourite quotations, from novelist Kingsley Amis: “The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair.”

There are basically two kinds of distractions, the ones we create ourselves and the ones provided for us by other people. My latest time management post offers some suggestions on how to Ring-fence Your Most Creative Time. I’ll continue the theme this coming Friday on Business Of Design Online, where I focus specifically on the endless list of incoming demands that threaten to take away our creative concentration.

EDIT: If you prefer watching video to reading, here’s a time management training interview in which I explain some of the key concepts from the ebook.

Would you like your team to be more creative and productive?

If your team could do with some help getting creative work done in the midst of the demands and distractions of the 21st-century workplace, ask me about running my popular time management training workshop Time Management for Creative People for your organisation.