The value of being focused

Canada Geese enjoying the morning sun

We would be better off if we stopped talking on a cell phone while driving, quit reading emails while talking on the phone and didn't work while eating our lunch.  Contrary to popular belief, multitasking makes us less productive and efficient with our time according to CEO and author Tony Schwartz.  He's written a blog entry about this for the Harvard Business Review, "The magic of doing one thing at a time."

Some of the things he recommends individuals to do in order to clearly set their own boundaries include the following:
     1.  Do the most important thing first in the morning.
     2. Establish regular, scheduled times to think more long-term, creatively, or strategically.
     3. Take real and regular vacations, when you are truly disconnected from work.

One of the small things I've done at times to enhance my focus is to simply not listen to the radio when driving.  Or better yet, listening for the sounds of birds while walking or riding a bike!