We seem to live in a world where we have more tasks to do than we have time to do them.  Do you have any guidance on this?

Yes, the world is a very busy place.  In the past, communication could take days or even weeks to get a message from one person to another.  Now, with the advance of telecommunications and electronics, messages are sent around the world in an instance.  Further, people are available nearly 24/7.  The work day for many, never ends because they are in constant communication with their boss, customers, or peers.  Yes, things have gotten busier on that front.

In the past, when someone “punched out” from work and went home, they might have a nice dinner with their family and decompress for the day.  Sure, people would bring work home at night, which is nothing new today, but the communication generally stopped.   Now, with constant interruptions it can be difficult to finish one’s work, and those interruptions may not cease after work hours.

We have some suggestions for handling the new mode of work in your life.   The first step is to make conscious decisions about how you care to spend your time.  For example, if your mobile phone vibrates during dinner with the family, do you immediately stop the conversation, or worse, ignore the conversation and check the message or email?  If so, you have implied that message from a then unknown sender is more important than the family conversation you are having.

We understand that there are circumstances where you may be checking a message to see if it’s from a distant child or loved one.  However, you need to really make conscious use of your time.  When you are with another person, be with that person!  Do not attempt to “multi-task” the conversation in person with a remote conversation as well.

In order to better prioritize your time you need to do an inventory of your beacons and decide which tasks take you towards a beacon.  When you find yourself continually working tasks that are not in line with a beacon you either need to reevaluate the tasks that you choose to work, or the beacons that you have placed in the world.

The world has grown smaller with the advances in communication, but the interesting thing is that the communication between humans may have declined.  Make sure you spend the time for face to face communication with your loved ones and friends.  No other form of communication can replace the time to connect in person, unless of course that is not possible, then voice communication is a secondary option.

So, to summarize an answer to your question, we recommend that you be present and deliberate in everything that you do.  Pay attention to the distractions that are preventing you from doing your work.  Devise ways to minimize those distractions such as, possibly checking your communication devices once every couple of hours.  In general, you need to be the director of your time.

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Time is a precious commodity in the physical world.  How you spend your time, becomes the basis for how you spend this lifetime.  Choose wisely, for one day there will be no more time in this life!

Written Nov 20, 2013 8:25-8:38 AM