Last week I had the opportunity to lead an exciting workshop as part of Leaders Connect. It focused on Developing a Personal Leadership Plan, the video can be found here.
We focused on Identifying Your Blind Spots.
One of the participants, Larry, described his challenge of being flooded by many thoughts when trying to do his writing.
I described a process, which I invented a few years ago.
I call it IAN, which stands for I AM NOW (fill in the blank).
I am also one of those guys, like Larry, who has too many ideas floating through my head at one time. These are not only thoughts but often lead to actions that distract me from what my original intention was to do.
For example, today, I intended to ride my bike to York, my favorite coffee shop, to get breakfast and to do some work. That was at 9:00 AM, now it’s 10:48 AM and I’m still at home, having breakfast on my porch. I’ve done many things since then: listening to Spotify, watching an interview on Conan with Amy Schumer, starting to put my clothes away, taking a shower, texting with a friend, etc.
Needless to say, I’m still not at the coffee shop.
As a remedy to this type of distractibility, I created IAN, here’s an example of how I use it:
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When I am faced with a task, I pull out a Post-it note and write at the top IAN.
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Then I write down what it is that I intend to do for the next several minutes until the task is done.
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I stick it somewhere in front of me where I will keep my eye on it while I do whatever task I have designated.
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When I start to get distracted I look at the note and remind myself that i am not going to do anything else until I finish my task.
I can use it for work: “I am now writing a Dr. Rob about IAN”
I can use it for household tasks: “I am now doing the dishes.”
I can use it when I am working out: “I am now riding my NU Step for 20 minutes.”
IAN has been a good friend to me for many years, I am able to call on him at times when I find myself distracted or procrastinating. Like many of us, IAN is not perfect but he is there when I need him.
So I invited you to give IAN a try and let me know if he is helpful.
Or if you have other suggestions for staying focused, please share them with us.