Focus, People, Focus

Lisa Stiles / May 7th / Comments

At the last count, I have a mobile phone, landline, four separate e-mail accounts, a Facebook account, a LinkedIn account, a Twitter account, and a personal blog. In my office I have four separate calendars (two print, two electronic) to keep track of my life. There should be no reason for me to miss an appointment, e-mail, phone call, or any instance of electronic minutiae. And I’m not even terribly “connected” by some people’s standards.

But I’m more distracted than ever. Remember the Bible verse in Matthew 6:24? “No one can serve two masters.” Wise words, and I’m not even trying to serve two masters; it’s turns out to be more like 10 of them. I’m not decrying the advancement of technology but merely the fact that we are assaulted with so much of it on a daily basis that it inevitably leads to a distracted, unfocused approach to business and life in general. I end up as someone who is half in one task and half in another and is missing the pertinent details of both.

I know I am not alone. I see it show up in the busy business leader who tries to monitor his mobile phones as if he were at NASA headquarters guiding home the latest space shuttle. I often get frustrated in meetings with people like this because, as a copywriter for a healthcare marketing firm, these distractions result in huge problems that show up later when crafting strategy – I find questions that were not fully answered and objectives that are vague and unfocused. This inevitably leads to wasted time in follow-up calls, e-mails, and so on.

Contrast this with the business leaders I’ve met with who take a few precious minutes to have a real conversation. They’ve been informative, prepared, and never once tried to monitor their phone. Consequently, they have seen the best results from the work I do for them.

It’s lesson I need to take to heart as well. I’ve heard it said that whatever gets your attention, gets you. Focus on what’s important.