Is this Bank Holiday an opportunity to really indulge in something you enjoy?

No doubt many readers are looking forward to the final Bank Holiday of the summer. This particular Bank Holiday always takes me back to when I was in my teens and the fair coming to town. On the Monday they always reduced the price of the rides to just 10p (showing my age) so everybody seemed to be there.

This Bank Holiday we’ve decided to focus on just two things ....
- Visiting my mother who is based on the South Coast
- Decorating the loft room for which I mean repaint the walls and woodwork.

And this is the last time I’m going to log onto my computer until Tuesday morning. Now I’m not trying to be smug in any way as I’m sure many of you will have to review emails from work especially if you are on call. If however there is no real logical reason for you to jump to attention when the blackberry rumbles could I challenge you to have a break from it and have a chance to focus on one thing that you really want to do.
Now I know this is easier said than done as we all have adopted a life where multitasking has become the norm. Technology has supposed to have made our lives easier yet when you stop to think about it we have used these advances to cram more multi tasking into our already hectic days. ..and please don’t think that I can sit here and say I don’t succumb to these opportunities.
It is really difficult.

However researching this as part of my work to support leaders become more resilient the inability to sustain attention is not the only consequence of multitasking.

Research has shown that multitasking can lead to...

- becoming easily distracted by extraneous stimuli

- tasks actually taking longer to complete than if they were tackled individually

- difficulties around organising workload effectively

- overload, stress and ultimately burnout

Is it any wonder in so many work environments where desks are open planned that workers are finding it increasingly difficult to achieve quality, focused work and lack of concentration is becoming widely accepted as normal behaviour.

So what if you really can’t leave those e mails behind you for three days?
Well  why not allow yourself a short, uninterrupted period to look at your emails each day which gives you enough time to take necessary action if required. .. typically first thing in the morning so you aren’t constantly thinking about them throughout the day.
Agree the period of time with yourself or your partner and then stop, log off or turn your blackberry to silent.
Then close your eyes and take some deep breaths and try to switch off the internal chatter is no doubt still going on in your head. Count your breaths in and out a dozen times, trying to remain focused on the act of breathing.
Finally go and do something, anything as long as you focus your attention on it and really appreciate what you are doing.
I dare you!
The author Winifred Gallagher summed it up well and is quoted in Tony Schwartz and Jean Gomes’ excellent book ‘Be Excellent at Anything’.
“Paying rapt attention, whether to a trout stream or a novel, a D-I-Y project or a prayer, increases your concentration, expands your inner boundaries, and lifts your spirits, but more important, it makes you feel that life is worth living.”

I will be remembering this as  I dig the paint rollers out of the shed.

If you would like a copy of my free book 'Fit for business' then please just click on the link below

http://www.martincrisp.com/freebook/