I love Scrabble and have been playing it since I was a little girl. My mom and I would play it all the time and it was played often among my neighbors growing up as well. I remember playing it during the NY blackout of 1977 via candlelight and flashlights and the constant battles at my Aunt and Uncle’s house every time I went to visit. You can imagine my surprise then when I asked my Mom and my husband if they wanted to play today. Their response, “we’re watching football. We’re good.”
Now I know this is the playoffs and all but they picked football over Scrabble! All you football fans out there will probably be blasting me for this post but when I was growing up we played games more than we watched them and now it seems we watch more than we do.
I’ve had a number of friends and peers approach me lately and ask me why they cannot seem to move forward in their lives and businesses. When I ask them to tell me what they do on a daily and weekly basis, it becomes clear why they are not moving forward; they are watching more than they are doing.
I am not saying that we should not all take a rest break now and then but if your rest breaks total more of your day than your doing breaks, I say, “Houston, we have a problem.” Not sure about your totals? I challenge you to track every hour of your day for the next week. I mean, list everything you do and the amount of time you do it. Write down how long you watch TV, eat, sleep, shower, shop, work, talk to your family, walk the dog, exercise, meditate, pray, go to church, ride horses or even go to the bathroom. I don’t care what you do, just write it down.
Once you have that list done, take a separate sheet of paper and write down your goals you have in your life. Then, take the items on your first list and copy the ones that help you move towards your goal with the amount of time you spent on them to the goal paper.
I guarantee you; you will be amazed at what you find. When I find I can’t figure out where the day has gone and I start to complain I did not get anything done I wanted to get done, I track my time in 15 minutes increments for a few days. Then I shift my focus to my goals and drop off the time wasters. Bam! Rapid improvements of productivity leaving me more time for fun things like Scrabble with the family. Well, maybe not until after the Super Bowl!
A great resource for focusing your productivity can be found at this website, http://www.highperformanceacademy.com/, plus it has some great free videos with actionable productivity tips as well . But DON’T use this link as another chance to drift off course from what you really want for your life!
What are your time wasters? What will you find out about your day and yourself after you track all your time for a week? Let me know. If you are having trouble focusing, comment and let’s see what you need to ask yourself to get your focus back.