Too Busy? Think About This

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This is an older piece by Don Blohowiak with useful thoughts on how to simplify your busy call center work life.

The banner over the advertisement reads:
"Innovative Thinking? We Don’t Even Have Time for Bad Thinking."

Ain’t that the truth!

The solution, according to IBM’s ad, is two-fold: Untangling your business processes. And buying its On Demand Innovation Services.

Could be. But before that’s all behind you, try this:

Schedule some unscheduled time. Go ahead. Block out a chunk of "protected time." And protect it jealously.

Then, when that delicious oasis arrives in the middle of your day, give yourself permission to just sit there. Resist the tremendous temptation to ignore your own appointment directing you to do nothing.

All those pressing matters will still be there waiting for your executive brilliance in another 60 or 90 minutes. But you’ll be more energized and better enabled to tackle them after your respite.

So, go ahead. Just sit there. Don’t type an email. Don’t read a memo.

Just sit there.

Stare out the window.

Contemplate the pictures on your desk. (That you cherish but never really look at.)

Get up and stroll. To nowhere in particular.

Try this as well: Give yourself the gift of quiet time.

Suggestion: Drive to and from work at least one day a week in complete silence. Stereo off. Cell phone on silent.

Once you’re no longer uncomfortable with that stranger named Quiet, your mind will pleasantly drift. And wonderful new thoughts will bubble up.

Tip: Here’s an easy way to capture those unexpected eurekas that you’ll inevitably liberate:

Have your assistant’s voicemail (or your own) on your cell phone’s speed dial. When the muse comes a tickling, call and dictate your brilliance for transcription. And action, when you are—all too soon—back in the frenetic fray.

Lead Well® helps organizations to improve measurable results by developing their current and future leaders. For more information, please contact us. By phone, toll-free in the USA: 1-888-LeadWell (532-3935), or 1-609-716-9490. By email, Info@LeadWell.com.
Don Blohowiak, a management consultant and popular conference speaker, is the author of several business books. The executive director of the Lead Well® Institute in Princeton, NJ, he may be reached at http://www.LeadWell.com/.