Eliminate Time Traps 3

Eliminate Time Traps Part 3n nYou have to decide if you really want to be continually available. If you don’t, then turn off your cell phone or other portable electronic devices.n nHave you ever counted the number of messages you get in a day, including email, voice mail or messages others take for you or that you leave? We allow ourselves to feel obligated to respond to all of these demands and as a result we are worn out. We have to be selective.n nNo one needs to read three newspapers every day, check email every 15 minutes, make scores of phone calls every day. These are habits that many of us fall into because they make us feel important and charged up as if doing a lot fast puts us on the cutting edge of life. But what price do we pay? We’re eligible for “America’s Most Frazzled Award?”n nWe have to choose what information we’re going to take in. Do you remember the movie The Blob? An alien life form absorbed everything and everyone in it’s path as it grew and grew. We have to be more selective than people have ever had to be. We have to regulate what we’re going to respond to, what we’re going to take in and how much time we’re going to devote to these activities or we’ll be consumed by, The Blob. n nI have a good friend who continually sends me 5 or more mass emails every work day. They’re mostly jokes. I find myself wondering how she ever gets her work done because she has to read them before she forwards them to her list. I finally got up the courage to ask her to take me off her joke list. I’m much happier and spending less time deleting the junk mail. n nYou may not realize it, but when you give people your email address or cell phone number you give them permission to make demands on you. Imagine how much more time and control over your life you would have if you didn’t react to all these pressing demand or the numerous nonessential emails everyday. n nYou have to train yourself to stay on task as much as the world is pulling you to go off task. Attention is like money, if we don’t watch how we spend it, we waste it. Make a list of your top 10 Time Traps. As you become more aware of how your time is being sapped you can overcome each one. n nThink about how much time do you give away without meaning to…to the TV, to friends you don’t really like, to email you don’t need to read, to shopping you don’t need to do. The more you give away, the less you have left for what you need and what you consider important. Attention isn’t limitless nor is your energy. n