Are Your Digital Habits Influencing Your Productivity?

Are Your Digital Habits Influencing Your Productivity?

by  on August 29, 2013 


Although modern technology tools can help us to achieve our goals and in an efficient manner, we also need to be cognizant of how much time we are spending on email, Facebook, or site surfing at large. You may want to consider logging the amount of hours you spend online or texting on an average day. It may be surprising to learn how friends’ status updates or text messages are prohibiting you from completing important and even urgent tasks. In his book, The 4-Hour Work Week,  Tim Ferris recommended setting aside certain times of day to respond to emails. Following this model, on days or weeks where you need to complete urgent and important tasks to meet your goals, you may want to consider checking in online once in the morning or last thing in the evening and disconnecting from email, Facebook, Twitter, or other online communication tools the rest of the day to optimize your productivity.  Read more on Psychology Today about how you might be suffering from “connection overload” and seven tips for email management here.
*Originally posted on the Career Skillet website (Permission granted by Jill Bowers).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Power of a Handshake

Image
The Power of a Handshake by   Lisa Brooks   on   August 13, 2013   What does your handshake say about you? Does it convey that you are confident and self-assured? Or, does it suggest that you are insecure, an emotional bully, or overconfident? Research shows that not only will you be judged by your handshake, you will be forming an impression about the other person when shaking hands. During my etiquette training at the Protocol School of Washington, I was taught to see the right hand as a sensor for discovering the type of person with whom I was dealing. Once you understand the subtle messages of a handshake and learn how to deliver the correct handshake, you will have a significant advantage in mastering your professional image. This article provides guidelines for delivering the correct handshake, as well as it will help you interpret (and avoid) some of the most common types of undesirable handshakes, such as the “dead fish,” the “fingertip holder,” the”glo...
Read more

What are You Looking At?: The Importance of Balanced Eye Contact

Image
What are You Looking At?: The Importance of Balanced Eye Contact by   Jill Bowers   on   July 22, 2013   What are you looking at?! Hopefully ME if you are talking to me.   But what if I’m judging you? What am I thinking about you? Do I make you nervous when I’m staring back at you? For these reasons, maintaining eye contact can be tough.   Yet, in many cultures and settings (i.e., in the United States), eye contact can help you to convey that you are trustworthy, respectful, and sincere. Eye contact can help you to influence others or establish an emotional connection.  It allows you to give some feedback to the individual you are interacting with, and it provides opportunities for you to see if they are understanding the meaning of the message you are trying to relay. Thus,   maintaining balanced eye contact can be critical to your accomplishments in personal and professional relationships. But what is meaningful, balanced eye con...
Read more

Find a Mentor: Think Out of the Box

Image
Find a Mentor: Think Out of the Box by   Kimi Crossman   on   July 31, 2013 Still feeling hesitant about identifying a mentor, despite Dr. Sherwood’s encouragement (see  What is a Mentor, and How Do I Find One )? Chew on this statistic: “Professionals who have mentors make between $5,610 and $22, 450 more annually than those on their own.” Thus, having a mentor will not only help you develop your professional identity, but it can also improve your chances of landing that higher-salary job. An advantage of our technological era is that your potential mentor doesn’t have to be within your immediate circle of friends, colleagues, professors, or employers. You don’t even have to limit yourself to creating one mentoring relationship. You can connect with multiple mentors from all around the world through social networking (see  Successfully Using Online Networking ). Read more tips from Aaron Pitman on how to use social media:  How Social Media ...
Read more