By Dr. John Demartini
There are times in almost every employer and employee’s life when their workload just seems to pile up and they become overwhelmed, highly stressed and, as a result, unproductive.
Employees who become distracted from their primary job objectives can eventually cost a business owner millions of dollars. If employees are carrying around too many tasks in their minds they tend to be unfocused and spend an enormous amount of time, energy and thought on low priority distractions instead of clearly focusing on purposeful high priority actions.
Following distraction reducing actions steps will restore a clear, undistracted, focussed and purposeful mind to yourself and your employees.
You can start by filling out what I call the Demartini Distraction Resolution Form™. You can create this simple form by taking a blank sheet of paper and drawing four equally spaced vertical lines down the paper so as to have five equally spaced columns.
- Label the first column “Distraction”. Write a complete list of every distracting idea, task, and project that is on your mind. Be sure to include anything in your personal or professional life occupying mental space and time. Be exhaustive. No idea is too trivial to write. It helps when you chunk down more complex projects or objectives that are distracting you into more manageable daily components and then list them.
- Label the second column “Dump”. Write a check mark next to any idea, thing, task, project or objective that you truly can’t do anything about or that isn’t worth any further thought. Sometimes we carry around in our heads ideas that are of such low priority that we simply need to dump them from our thoughts.
- Label the third column “Delegate”. Write the initial or full name of the individual who you feel you could best delegate the distraction written in column one to. This could be one of your subordinate employees or anyone who could take this distraction off your shoulders. Select thoughtfully and wisely. It’s wise to delegate to those more perfectly designed to fulfill the task. Think in terms of time and cost effectiveness.
- Label the fourth column “Do”. Write your initial in the box if you are the one best suited to tackling this action.
- Label the fifth and last column ‘Date”. Write the date of when you intend to begin acting on this distraction.
- When you have completed the above five columns then completely transpose all the resultant “delegations” and “dos” to appropriate “Daily Delegation Forms” for other’s to do or “Daily To Do Forms” for you to do. Again these forms can be created similarly as above.
- Now sort the distractions into others to do or you to do and date them in reasonable time frames. You will discover that what is on your plate for that actual day is way less than you at first imagined.
You will discover that you have been filling and distracting your mind with things that do not need to be done for possibly days or weeks into the future or maybe not at all. By filling out this form you will reduce your stress and become less overwhelmed. You will be able to stand back and have a clearer perspective on exactly what is important and what isn’t. - Finally, prioritize each of the items or actions you are to delegate or do yourself so that you are not lowering your self-worth by getting only low priority actions done each day at the expense of high priority, more productive actions.
A short pencil is wiser than a long memory. By getting your staff to organize and prioritize their days they will become more productive, more fulfilled, less stressed and less overwhelmed. Remember, a clear, undistracted mind that is focused on purpose has power.
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About Dr. John Demartini
Dr. John Demartini, a native of Houston, is a world renowned human behavior specialist, business consultant, educator and an internationally published author. He is the founder of the Demartini Institute, a private research and education organization headquartered in Houston with a curriculum of over 72 different courses covering multiple aspects of human development.
For more information and to download a free Value Determination Process Workbook, please visit www.DrDemartini.com/pm_determine_your_values
