The typical corporate worker stares 8 hours at a laptop, with 10+ browser tabs opened attempting to multitask email and PowerPoints. All this while attending a zoom meeting. Of course, the Instagram notifications are also accumulating on the mobile phone next to them.
Even when those distractions aren’t present, many find themselves reloading emails, seeking distraction. We've become addicted to distraction.
Relatedly, people are constantly complaining about the lack of time. They don’t have time to write that new book nor go to the gym. Back in the 1930s, the economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that his grandkids would work 15 hours a week as a result of all the technological gains we would achieve.
How could he have been so wrong about this?
But why should you care?
Lack of focus and time creates anxiety. Your clients with big dreams will consider themselves failures for not mastering their todo lists. They'll see peers being promoted or startup businesses being acquired in their LinkedIn feeds. They might start resenting their family and friends for taking away their free time.
Every hour spent not producing results is perceived as wasted time.
Some will wait for the “perfect time” to start something new, when life gives us a break. They’ll just wait until this non-existent event happens. But they will look back and regret thinking their life would not get busier.
Advice to consider during sessions.
Even when those distractions aren’t present, many find themselves reloading emails, seeking distraction. We've become addicted to distraction.
Relatedly, people are constantly complaining about the lack of time. They don’t have time to write that new book nor go to the gym. Back in the 1930s, the economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that his grandkids would work 15 hours a week as a result of all the technological gains we would achieve.
How could he have been so wrong about this?
But why should you care?
Lack of focus and time creates anxiety. Your clients with big dreams will consider themselves failures for not mastering their todo lists. They'll see peers being promoted or startup businesses being acquired in their LinkedIn feeds. They might start resenting their family and friends for taking away their free time.
Every hour spent not producing results is perceived as wasted time.
Some will wait for the “perfect time” to start something new, when life gives us a break. They’ll just wait until this non-existent event happens. But they will look back and regret thinking their life would not get busier.
Advice to consider during sessions.
- Remind your patient that being productive is noble, but to also celebrate leisure. They shouldn't feel guilty about taking a break or living the moment. The goal in life isn’t to be 100% productive.
- Encourage hobbies. They don’t have to be experts at it nor make money. But having the power to own your time is fulfilling in of itself.
- Remind them that procrastination is not always a bad thing. Sometimes the creative process requires it. Focusing your mind on other tasks/activities can result in epiphanies.
- To do lists are great, but the goal isn’t to knock out 100% of the items. Remind your patient that if they were able to complete 100% of their todo list on time, it means they weren’t being ambitious enough. 60-70% completion is a good rule of thumb. Also, changing circumstances impact the prioritization of todo list items. By the time you get to your 11th item on your to do list, you realize it’s no longer needed.
- 8 hours of straight work is mentally draining. Review some well known time management techniques with them. For example, the Pomodoro technique is a time management system that organizes your workday into 25-minute chunks separated by five-minute breaks. These intervals are referred to as pomodoros. After about four pomodoros, you take a longer break of about 15 to 20 minutes.
- Many of your clients will have back to back meetings all day without having time to complete actual work. Have your patient set a calendar meeting for themselves to get work done.
- There is never a perfect time to start anything. Ever. You either start it or you don’t.
- For your patients that say “If I had all the time in the world, I can get this done.” Maybe that’s true. But typically passion can force the time in your schedule. If you don't have the passion to do it now, probably not worth doing.