Compartmentalizing- Your Focus vs. Technology

Yet again, my boss has left me with a piece of wisdom to chew over after I have left work for the day. He told me to learn to compartmentalize things, meaning, if you are spending time with your boyfriend, that should be your main focus, nothing else. If you are juggling several projects at work or even juggling two jobs, focus on one thing because you will do the job much more efficiently and effectively. To put his comment into perspective, he is an entrepreneur who is constantly running several different businesses. Whatever he is working on, he gives it his undivided attention.

However, this has become increasingly hard due to technology. BlueSteps.com, the executive career management service of the Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC) surveyed over 800 senior executives worldwide to discover the latest attitudes of work-life balance. 70% believe that technology (i.e Smart phones & the Internet) have greatly decreased their leisure time.

Taking this thought a slightly different way: younger employees such as myself may find it hard to resist the temptation to check out what is going on in the Twitterverse. Honestly, it's sad but in order for me to focus better I have to check some form of social media for a brief minute in order to re-focus myself, and then I'm back to worker-bee status. My generation has it in our minds that if we are not checking up on social media constantly than we are going to miss something really important.

My friends and I have this running joke which started from a pin on Pinterest, where there was one picture of a boy and a girl on a date, both looking at their phones instead of each other, with the caption "On a Date". The next picture was a group of friends, all on their phones, with the caption "Hanging out with Friends". The last picture was a picture of Einstein with the quote, "I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. There will be a generation of idiots". Now whenever my friends and I find ourselves sitting in silence all on our phones, someone usually says, "Hanging out with friends!" And then we all come back to reality.

My point is, focus on whatever it is you are doing, and do whatever you have to do to keep that focus.

Ok, gotta go check my Twitter now!

Dana