Agents: Conquering Distractions
by Dirk Zeller
The scourge of time block adherence is the onset of "distractionitis." The fastest way to render a time block useless or even a day useless is to not deal with distractions well.
The most effective technique to help you with time block adherence is to plan for distractions that undoubtedly will come. You can't avoid them, the best you can do is plan for them. You might use as some of my clients, the preemptive strike technique. This preemptive strike allows you to deal with distractions from others on your terms.
I have many clients that are managers or employers and must interact with their subordinates regularly. They need to socialize and engage to build a culture of cooperation and teamwork. Rather than having an open door policy, which often leads to too many interruptions and distractions, they created specific time blocks or slots in their schedule daily to interact with the staff. They engage in management by walking around. This is where they encourage, engage and care for their team. They also can help with problems on the fly. This preemptive strike allows them to shut their door and focus a greater percentage of the day so they follow their time block schedule more readily.
The liberal use of flex time in ones schedule can give you an opportunity to deal with a distraction or emergency in a controlled manner. Flex time is a predetermined segment of time, usually fifteen to thirty minutes in length that is unspoken for. It is placed at strategic intervals in your schedule. It is then waiting patiently for you to come to it with your problems, challenges, and distractions. I implore you to hold off and not get distracted away from your time block schedule because the flex time is an hour or so away.
I always remember that when learning the skill of time blocking, to insert thirty minutes of flex time in your schedule for every two hours of time blocked activities. This might seem like a lot of flex time where you could have upwards of four intervals of flex time in a typical work day. The truth is if you could manage to hold firm on the distractions and problems until the four slots of flex time, you would see your productivity increase significantly in just a few weeks.
If you gave away your flex time each day to "stuffitis" but managed to stay on track to the rest of your time blocked schedule each day you would see a dramatic productivity increase in your day. Don't think about the two hours in your schedule you allocate to flex time. Think about the six to seven hours or more in your schedule that are highly productive hours.
One of the scourges of people who are trying to achieve more with their time and even trying to achieve more success is perfectionism. The mentality of crafting a perfect time block schedule before you begin has caused millions of people to fail at time blocking. The over reaching, over obsession of revising, redoing, and readjusting ones time block schedule every few days, or even hours, leads to frustration and defeat.
How good is good enough? How perfect does the time block schedule need to be to achieve results? With additional revision, how much additional productivity would I gain? What is the segment of the day or activity that is taking my schedule off track? These are the type of quick evaluation questions that can lead to a solid but quick revision. They will direct you to make changes that are results balanced and results oriented changes, not perfectionist changes.
When dealing with time we have to balance the results we expect to achieve more productivity, greater efficiency, reduction in time worked, and greater sales. If our objective is perfection of our time and schedule, then our standard will be too high.
The truth in business and in life is stuff happens! There are problem clients, problem staff members, delivery issues, service issues, sales issues, it's an endless list. If everything around you ran smoothly you would be out of a job. These are just the office or work issues. The home issues are just as interruption oriented and problematic as well. Some of the best moments in my life are when I see my young daughter at my office door through the glass wanting to come in and interrupt me! Her Mom has brought her down to the office to see Daddy! It's the few minute reward I receive by having a solid time block schedule that I adhere too. I might only have a few minutes before my next coaching call or sales call but the interruption is priceless. Don't ever expect perfection with your time blocking or time management.
In your time blocking as well as success you have to delineate the line of success. Where is the standard? How good is good enough? Where is the point where you will achieve diminishing returns on your effort?
A number of years ago I recognized that to achieve perfection or 100% took a tremendous amount of effort. To refine, revise, review, adjust, tweak, evaluate, change, test and then repeat took unimaginable effort to reach that 100% level. In my evaluation I realized that the amount of effort to hit a 95% standard was about the same as the amount of effort required to go from that 95% to 100%. That last 5% was a killer! The 95% rule holds very true when dealing with a time blocked schedule. The effort and energy you will expend to achieve 5% will equal the first 95% you invest in your time block.
Published: May 10, 2013
Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.