Come back fresh after summer

We are all looking forward to our summer breaks. It’s a great moment to relax, disconnect from work, and spend more time with the family and friends – not to mention hit the beaches and the cultural circuit. But this summer break, when you are stepping away from your daily routines, why not take some time to reflect on them and think of some little changes that could make a positive impact on how you work and organise your time? Summer breaks don’t just have to be time away from the office. They can also be an opportunity to come back to the office fresh with new ideas and improvements to our routines.

Often we spend time analysing the big picture, the whole forest rather than the individual trees. Sometimes little changes in our daily routines can make big differences in our lives. One thing we overlook is how technology has crept into our lives: things like emails, SMS, PDA’s – sure, they’ve opened up a world of possibilities, but have they really made our lives more efficient?

Besides all the obvious benefits of instant communication, it could easily be argued that they are distracting us unnecessarily. In fact, some observers say that many of us suffer from a sort of electronically-induced ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder).

Take meetings, for example. It might be hard to fathom, but once upon a time we didn’t have portable devices that allowed us to instantly respond to emails from wherever we were. Now, cell phones are generally on and PDA’s (Portable Digital Assistant) are present at every meeting. Some people, in fact, gauge a meeting’s success by the inverse ratio of number of people tapping on their PDA’s per person talking – the more people typing on their PDA’s rather than listening, the less effective the meeting.

Part of the problem is that proper etiquette has not been established in this area, and it is not as simple as banning mobile devices from meetings. As we all know, the adage “time is money” applies here – and a late response to an email can cost a company business. However, it is also costly to have people in meetings who are disengaged from the topic. The challenge is to establish a norm on when it is essential for someone to answer immediately, and when it could wait.

Now, let’s imagine the meeting is in English. Sometimes it’s hard enough to follow a meeting in your own language, especially if a lot of new information is being thrown at you. Obviously, you need to be on your toes a lot more when a meeting is conducted in English. This means you need to lose all distractions, and that means foregoing things like checking incoming messages.

Many people say they have difficulty following a meeting that is not in their native tongue, and many of these same people will also admit that they were checking their messages throughout the meeting. It may sound like a small, moot point, but in most instances responding to incoming messages immediately is not necessary. It can be, however, a costly distraction.

So, while you are taking a break from the routine this summer, also take a moment to think about what you can do when you get back to make your work life a little saner and with a lot fewer distractions.