Time Confetti

How many of you have seen “New Year’s Rocking Eve” with Ryan Seacrest?

Can you picture it?

The ball drops as Ryan counts us down… “5, 4, 3, 2, 1, “Happy New Year!!!!”

And then…

The confetti. Quick research says it's over 3000 lbs.! That’s 1.5 tons of little, tiny paper strips floating all out in front of us. If you’re in it, you can’t see through it.

A few months ago, I heard an interesting analogy to confetti. Picture all the tasks you do, you don’t do, and you think about doing. All the distractions in between, the emails, ohhh the emails, the texts, notifications, and junk phone calls. It’s everywhere – and what about those thousands of random thoughts? Let’s not even go there!

Imagine every piece of confetti in front of you - those you have to do, didn’t do, others want you to do, and probably something you shouldn’t do – URGENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’ve read that one distraction can cost us as much as 10 minutes lost, sometimes much more. Five distractions in a 30-minute task = 1 hour and 20 minutes! Can you relate? Plus, the 30 minutes within the hour and twenty are far less effective than the 30 minutes with no distractions. Think about your day. How much of what you do has your full presence for any real duration of time? And not just at work. What about your spouse, your kids, parents, and friends? Yikes!

Time confetti is unproductive, draining, stressful and unhealthy.

Time to clear the confetti and work with focus, presence, and stuff that confetti into boxes you choose to open only when you’re ready. You’ll get a lot of the right stuff done in less time with better results.

What’s important? Work – key projects, strategic thinking, people. Home – your spouse, your family, you-time, SLEEP!

Let’s turn all that time confetti into neat, little boxes – tight compartments of focused energy, attention, and effort.

Stephen Covey calls these boxes the big rocks.

Let’s save confetti for its proper place.

With Ryan at New Year's!