Turn Off Your Cell Phone!

Yes, I admit it. My cell phone is sitting on a little stand in front of my computer monitor. BUT, if I don’t turn it off, I will have sweet little musical reminders (I like Back from the Future) constantly. My eyes will switch to the phone, and I am often tempted to pick it up and take one small peek at what is comin in. BAM. I am hooked. Who else has tried to contact me? What is happening in the news? The stock market? LinkedIn? Facebook?

The problem is when I break from working to look at my cell phone, it will take me approximately 23 minutes and 15 seconds (U of CA Irvine study) to refocus on my work. That is a HUGE gap in my productivity. Some people take even longer to get refocused. According to a survey of 1500 workers by Truce, they found that people respond to cell phone distractions in a number of ways:

Please note: only 4% wait until work is over before they start using their cell phone. That means 96% are distracted during their work hours. Are you part of that 96%? Could that be why you are not producing the number of words/pages that you want to finish?

Cell phones are absolutely wonderful pieces of mini-computers we can stick into our pockets. They are also time-eaters which mesmerize our minds. We follow all types of tangents, clicking here and there, sometimes sharing with our multitudes of friends. Anything but working.

Writing is hard work. Anything that can distract us causes us to forget our mission and go off surfing the net. To be the most productive, you must turn off your cell phone. For those of you with family, perhaps turn on DO NOT DISTURB, and make sure your important people can reach you. The best part: DO NOT DISTURB means that all of the other miscellaneous distractions will wait until you cancel the command and you are ready to deal with them in your free time.

If you wish to increase your productivity, turn off your cell phone. Just for your working hours!