What’s your productivity poison?

When asked “What’s your poison” many of us might choose a Gin and Tonic or glass of Whisky.  The benefits of the odd tipple are obvious (in moderation): a sense of relaxation, a nice warm feeling in your tum – perhaps increased social interaction?

When the drinking becomes an everyday occurrence though, that when the problems begin: too many headaches, missed deadlines at work – maybe inability to focus or concentrate on the important things.

Maybe you don’t drink much or even at all? Perhaps your “poison” is the large latté you get from Starbucks every morning on the train in to the office? Can you imagine skipping that? How would you feel if you didn’t pop into that corner coffee shop every day?

Yet while the odd glass of wine or take-away coffee may be pleasurable why are they so hard to give up?

Is it because we are addicted to the good feelings they give us?

We know in our hearts that they do not do us any good in the long run but can we imagine life without them?

Many of us are addicted to our emails – or more specifically the new email “ping” that we get when our alerts tell us of a shiny new email waiting for us.

What payoff we do we get from that?

We know from years of delivering our course that the seductive “ping” is distracting – yet so many of us (bright, successful, professional people) find it irresistible.

We know it distracts us. We know we get a shot of happy chemicals when we hear it – like a shot of espresso coursing through our veins – which is probably why it is so addictive.

Someone once compared emails to weeds – if you ignore them they keep on growing. Spraying them occasionally will slow them down but won’t stop them altogether. To rid your garden of weeds completely you need to be ruthless – kill them, spray them, pull them out by their roots. And repeat – every time.

Be good to yourself – turn off your alert, put down the coffee and take a walk instead  – just not to Starbucks!

Want to know how to wean yourself off your email addiction? Join us for an exclusive, live webinar event hosted by Emailogic and CIPD.