The 20 seconds away productivity tool

TV_remote

Guy watching TV with remote control

I found this great productivity tip that will blow your mind away. If it doesn’t, well… it should.

We all seem to be more distracted nowadays, which we know has to do with all the gadgets technology has to offer. Starting with TV shows, emails, texting, etc.

Shawn Achor discovered this principle when he was trying to rekindle his guitar practice. After a month of having practiced only four times, he tried to find out what was wrong with him.

Then, he had this aha moment. It was very simple. I’m sure you can identify yourself with similar situations.

He would come home tired from work, sat on his sofa and reach out for the remote. It was then that he would remember his commitment to play the guitar. But, it was too late, it was so much comfy to stay put, than to get up and go to his closet to pull out his guitar.

He realized he needed to make an initial effort to get to his guitar. Instead, he could slide into his sofa, remote control in hand to watch TV.

He decided to try an experiment. He measured the time it took him to get to his guitar. It was exactly 20 seconds. He removed the batteries from his remote, and placed them 20 seconds away from his sofa. He then bought a guitar stand and placed his guitar right along side the sofa. After a month, the results were amazing. He had played his guitar for 20 days.

So, in order to increase your productivity, place all those distracting activities 20 seconds away from you, and your work within easy reach.

For instance, if emails are distracting you. Turn off your email app, and put your email app icon within several folders, to make it difficult to get to.

Simple. I thought it was great.

An interesting alternative, is to set up rules. In the email example, you could have a rule where you only open your emails at noon and at six o’clock.

See how this tip works and let me know.

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