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Disruptions To My Routine Can Really Upset the Apple Cart

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After This Past Week…I’m Trying to Get the Apples Gathered Back Up

Something happened this past week that has never happened before.

Since I started writing weekly blog posts in October of 2015…I’ve never missed a week.

When I started, I committed to myself that I would write and post weekly.

The question is…should I still be committed to this?

Commitment is a good thing. We just need to be careful what we’re committed to. Why did I make this commitment? Is it still a valid commitment? Is it worth the time it takes? All questions that need to be answered.

This past week was spent moving some furniture from Salem, Missouri to Spearfish South Dakota for my mother-in-law. This was done to help my wife and her family, who are dealing with a difficult situation.

Life is full of difficult decisions. The question is…what is the highest priority?

This past week it was helping family over posting.

Being a routine motivated person, disruption to my routines spilled apples everywhere. Routine gives me a since of control and I don’t like it when things are out of control. I like things organized.

As I’m gathering the apples back up, I’m asking myself how I can better deal with disruptions in the future? Because I know who I am and how I operate, it’s up to me to decide.

I may need to replace some bad apples with some new ones.

We need to be careful that routines don’t become the reason that we’re doing things. It’s important to periodically step back, review what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.

A cart full of organized apples is no good if we don’t enjoy an apple pie once and a while.

Knowing Yourself Is One of The Most Difficult Things to Do

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It’s A Critical Component in Being Productive

This past week I listened to Michael Hyatt’s, Lead to Win podcast, “3 Actions to Beat Your Biggest Distractions”. The actions were: 1st – build a wall against interruptions, 2nd -put a leash on distractions and 3rd – increase your frustration tolerance. They spoke about how easily we can be distracted, especially nowadays with the bombardment of information.

Most of the things they discussed were great solutions. Some of them, however, were not what I would have done.

Each of us has been designed differently by plan. To be the most productive version of ourselves we need to take time to intentionally figure out what that plan is.

Ultimately it comes down to knowing…

  • WHO we are
  • WHY we do the things we do
  • WHAT we need to be able to accomplish those things
  • WHEN do those things need to be done
  • WHERE do we need to go to achieve those things?
  • HOW do all the pieces fit together

Being our most productive selves is no one’s responsibility but our own.

They talked about interruptions and distractions as different things. For me they really are one in the same. (This reminds me of last week’s post.) If I’m distracted, I’m being interrupted and conversely if I’m interrupted, I’m being distracted. Believe me I know, because I’m interrupted and distracted a lot. Let’s just call it disruptions.

The point here is, regardless of what you call it, you need to know what things disrupt you and how to best deal with them. You can predetermine what those things are and implement systems to handle them ahead of time. It will take some trial and error to figure it out, but you are the one who can do this for yourself. I know that if I get on a social media site that I will spend more time than planned so I’m careful about when and how often I do it.

One of the things that is hard for me is the constant battle between my desire to serve people well and the need to stay focused on what I’m working on. If I’m in the middle of preparing a proposal and the phone rings or a text message comes in and I don’t respond I feel bad. On the other hand, if I stop what I’m doing to respond I’m losing my concentration and dragging out getting the proposal done.

Every situation is different, the key to unlocking productivity is to think about it and be prepared before it happens. In each instance which is more important? If it’s the proposal and I can’t control myself to not respond, then turn the phone off. If it’s a call that I’ve been waiting for all day then I should take it.

The important thing to remember is that it’s up to me. I can choose.

There’s no easy fix. No one size fits all. If you are still alive then you can do something to improve your productivity. The key is to know yourself. This requires asking questions, trying different things and never giving up.