Good morning, all….I hope you make today a wonderful day!
Breaking from tradition, today’s entry doesn’t focus on technology. Rather, it attempts to make a point about interruptions, those tiny time killers.
This morning, as I do many mornings, I listened to “The Writer’s Alamanac,” Garrison Keillor’s peaceful, informative program on my local PBS station. He featured a poem, “Lessons,” by Pat Schneider, and the poem spoke to me on several levels. The third stanza compares interruptions to “tiny grain moths or mice” and goes on to speak of the consequences of allowing them into our day.
I don’t know about you, but that certainly speaks to me! I am easily distracted, and allowing interruptions has been a favorite passtime. There is one particular “mouse” (I think of it more as a moose!) that easily interrupts me: email! I love email, and I can’t imagine life without it. Unless I do something to tame it, however, it is my #1 source of interruptions, my #1 productivity slayer.
If email is a constant source of interruption for you, too, here are the two biggest tools I use to tame it:
Rules. Rules allow you to divert messages with certain subjects, messages from certain persons, etc., directly to a folder, keeping them out of your inbox until you are ready to look at them. I do this with messages from my assistant, Heather. Her messages automatically go into a certain folder, I check it twice a day, and I save time.
Check email as frequently as possible. I check email at noon and 4 p.m. This works for my business and saves me many interruptions. Set a schedule that works for you, but stop checking emails everytime one comes in. Then….then try to stick to it!
BTW: The rest of the poem is worth reading, too….hope it is meaningful to you. Remember: “moments are as precious as nutmeg.”
It’s a beautiful day here on the lake in Reston (fall is in full bloom!)…I hope it’s a beautiful day wherever you are, too!
Regards,
Allen
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Lessons,” by Pat Schneider
I have learned
that life goes on,
or doesn’t.
That days are measured out
in tiny increments
as a woman in a kitchen
measures teaspoons
of cinnamon, vanilla,
or half a cup of sugar
into a bowl.
I have learned
that moments are as precious as nutmeg,
and it has occurred to me
that busy interruptions
are like tiny grain moths,
or mice.
They nibble, pee, and poop,
or make their little worms and webs
until you have to throw out the good stuff
with the bad.
It took two deaths
and coming close myself
for me to learn
that there is not an infinite supply
of good things in the pantry.
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