Disconnecting - It's Time To Quiet The Noise And Re-Focus

I had the opportunity to take some time off this week and heed the advice of my business partner Gary and "disconnect". This has always been difficult for me, as I have always had a difficult time unplugging from the various utility belt devices, laptops and PCs available to me at home or when traveling.

This time around, I was determined to get at least a couple of days in completely unplugged - but I took it a bit further. Prior to completely disconnecting, I decided to evaluate all of the ways I get distracted electronically each day - RSS Feeds, Email, texting, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., and decided to disengage from most of them.

That's right - I canceled most of my RSS Feeds, dropped out of many of my subscription email notification services, stopped following folks on Twitter and cleaned up my email profile. As a result, I must have reduced my incoming emails by about 70 per day (no kidding) and reduced overall distractions tremendously. I've also adopted a strict once-a-week schedule for managing my Facebook and LinkedIn friend requests and profiles, only reply to urgent text messages and have begun experimenting with ping.fm to automate the updating of my Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts simultaneously, reducing duplication of effort.

I'm really looking forward to returning to the office next week with a lot less distractions and more time to focus on what my role is in helping our organization achieve its business goals - how about you?

Erick Simpson
MSP University
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Comments

[Erick Simpson]

Thanks for the comment, Joe. I forgot to mention I've also cleaned up (read blocked all non-critical contacts in) my IM account, and have taken to logging in as "Appear Offline". IM is also quite the constant distraction!

TTYL

[Joe Panettieri]

Erick: You're offering up some great advice. So much noise, so little time. I plan to follow your thoughts regarding "once-per-week" management of Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.
-jp