This month, the Donor By Design Group is challenging you to take action, moving from resolutions to results. Today’s topic? Focus.
I fondly remember the early days of my career (more than two decades ago now). I used to write a speech in a single day. I could run through so many accounts in only an afternoon. I could take multiple phone calls and process their needs.
Fast forward to now. Why are we so challenged to get things done day-in, day-out? Focus. Two decades ago, I did not have a smartphone. Or the Internet. I barely had email. Five emails a day was remarkable.
Research shows that it takes 23 minutes to “refocus” after an interruption. 23 minutes! If you take into account sleep, eating, commuting, etc, there are only seventeen 23-minute periods in a day. If you are interrupted just 10 times – that means you’ve lost half your day. So what do we do?
Unplug.
It is that simple. I have many different clients and I am invested in their success. I am delighted to hear from them. However, if I allow each email, text message, document, or request to interrupt my train of thought, my focus, how much work would I get done?
Very little.
Instead, when I have pressing things to get done, I schedule various check-in periods during the day. I call them my “interruption times.” I check email four times during the working day. I turn off the phone.
Once I started doing this, guess what I missed? Hardly anything. Know how many times I missed a deadline? Never. And if you are putting together a grant proposal, a PowerPoint presentation or a thoughtful report, this focus times will not only prove more productive. You will find the quality of your work improve as well.
I even do this with calls. Important donors to call? Focus. Review the person’s profile I need to call. Make sure I have a purpose to the call and a desired result. Practice the call in my head. Make the call. Focus.
It’s not hard, it is just deliberate.
P.S. The first draft of this blog took me 8 minutes to write. Focus works.
