Inspiration and Life

Making Your Day the Best

Two ways of being in your life

How often do you think about what you will do tomorrow? If you are like most of us, you reach the end of a week and find it difficult to point to anything you accomplished that was meaningful.

It happens to all of us, but what can we do about it? Let’s look at a solution that has helped many in their lives. This solution rests in the meaning behind the words represented by the acronym ACE.

Two ways of being

Before discussing the words behind ACE, let’s look at how most of us approach our daily lives. Please bear with me as I will be very direct for the remainder of this article. After all, this is life, and life is serious business!

Most of us go through life in one of two ways. The first and most common way is that of thoughtlessness. Yes, you read that correctly. Many of us go through life with little or no thought.

The second way to go through life is with thoughtfulness. Where thoughtlessness generally lacks purpose, thoughtfulness is all about purpose.

Those who live a life with little thought often wonder where the week went and can point to very few accomplishments.

Those who live a thoughtful life are more aware of what they did. They begin the week knowing what they wanted to accomplish and end it knowing what they did or did not achieve.

Which way are you? There is no shame in admitting you are one or the other. Unfortunately, little in life teaches us to be more thoughtful. For most of us, we must discover it on our own.

Is there a simple way to become more thoughtful and less thoughtless? Let’s look at such a way based on the acronym ACE.

ACE

Since one day follows the next, regardless of how thoughtful you are, why not choose to make each day more meaningful? How can you do this? By moving from one day to the next with something in mind that you wish to accomplish. For a great system to point you in this direction, check out this article: Do You Have a Daily Opportunity List?

One issue with many of us is we fly by the seat of our pants, attempting to take on more tasks than reasonable. You will “spend” the day on something, so why not learn to be thoughtful and manage what you do?

Let’s now look at three things that will help you thoughtfully accomplish more every day by looking at the acronym ACE, which stands for Attention, Choice, and Effort.

Attention

Where you place your attention determines what you see, think, choose, place your effort, and the results you receive.

“Whatever you focus your attention on will become important to you even if it’s unimportant.” Sonya Parker (1960-present)

So many things vie for our attention. There we sit, working away, the phone rings, an email comes in, and someone stops in to ask a question or chat. The interruptions never seem to stop.

When we resume work, it isn’t easy to pick up where we left off, and it takes a while to get back to where we were.

And so the day goes. And the week. And the month. And the year!

Over time, we work hard yet accomplish little for the time spent. Such is the way time flows in far too many of our lives. Time doesn’t wait for anyone. Whether time is working in our favor or not, there it goes!

In addition to outside interruptions, we create disruptions of our own. The ability to focus varies daily, hourly, and even minute by minute.

But we are well aware of what we can accomplish when we focus. We tackle a project and finish it in “one fell swoop.” But the issue in real life is we attempt to tackle not one but several tasks in a day — and if we are fortunate, we might complete one.

Interruptions are a major thief of attention, yet they are a fact of life. Numerous studies show it takes time to return to where you left off after an interruption. A University of California Irvine study claims it takes nearly twenty-five minutes to resume where we were when interrupted — and those minutes are a high cost to pay. That amounts to serious time lost, given how many interruptions happen daily.

We can’t work in a bubble, isolated from all interruptions. But we can be intentional about where we focus (and refocus) our attention. Some good questions to ask yourself regularly during a given day are:

• Am I spending this moment doing something that will make a meaningful difference?
• Where am I placing my attention?
• How can I block out interruptions?

What is your attention on today? Are you paying attention to things that will matter in your life in the long term and produce real results, or are you going for the immediate and short-term?

A good qualifying question for choosing what you place your attention on is:

“What will this add to my life a year from now?”

Choice

You can accomplish what you choose to do and commit to seeing it through. How much thought do you give to your choices? What choices did you make yesterday with your time and talents? What do you choose to accomplish today? While you are at it, why not tackle some of those interruptions?

“We are our choices.” Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980)

Yes, some interruptions are unavoidable. But we can cut down on the things that intrude on our space and waste our time! Here are a few simple things you can choose to do that are valuable for increasing attention and getting things done:

• Turn off your cell phone.
• Put your phone on do not disturb.
• Turn off all email and social app notifications.
• Block out chunks of time on your calendar and stick to your appointments.
• Close the office door for an hour (or more) and see what you can get done in that period of uninterrupted time.
• Put up a DO NOT DISTURB sign.
• Never, ever attempt to multitask on anything of importance.

Where you have placed your attention will always require you to make a choice. Remember, to make a choice not to do something is still a choice!

Besides choosing to get interruptions under control, what do you choose to get done today that will make a difference in your life?

Effort

Having focused your attention and committed to a choice, all that’s left is to act by exerting effort. As Nike’s slogan says, “Just do it!” What do you choose to act on today? Not what will you “try to do,” but what will you actually do? Inaction is a zero-sum choice. You either jump off the diving board, or you don’t.

“Continuous effort – not strength or intelligence — is the key to unlocking our potential.” Winston Churchill (1874–1965)

Pay particular attention to the last item in the above list, multitasking. It is of key importance. Check out Sue Shellenbarger’s Wall Street Journal article entitled, “Multitasking Makes You Stupid: Studies Show Pitfalls of Doing Too Much at Once.”

A major problem with attempting to multitask is splitting your focus on two or more tasks lowers your IQ and slows your ability to get things done. Your poor brain can only do one thing at a time, requiring it to switch back and forth between tasks.

According to the American Psychological Association, “task-switching” reduces productivity by 40 percent. It takes time to reconnect with what you were working on when interrupted, even if you caused it yourself.

Most of us lose 28 percent of our productive working time — more than two hours daily because of interruptions and recovery time! And that is a very conservative estimate of time lost. At least, it is for me.

Think of this: You’re meeting with several others to decide on something important. Some of you are talking about the decision, while others are constantly checking phones, replying to emails, or doing something else.

Not only will the distracted attendees potentially miss something of importance, but they can also miss their opportunity to participate. By the way, those emails they sent are likely riddled with mistakes! And what about the disrespect shown to those who are fully attentive in the meeting?

If you were running the meeting, wouldn’t you want everyone to be capable of participating?

As it is, we waste too much time in meetings. Attempting to multitask wastes even more precious minutes. Although it’s becoming more common to see people looking at their phones all the time, who doesn’t get frustrated by the countless distractions of phones, tablets, or computers?

Let’s say you are working on a project that should take one hour to complete if your sole focus is on the project. What is the likelihood of finishing within that hour if you stop to check your email or suddenly try to focus on something else, even for a few minutes? Be honest about how many distractions you add to or allow in your life and how they affect your productivity.

Test this concept in your own life. Remove every distraction, including your phone. In fact, turn it off and put it in a different room.

By doing this, the average person will more than double their productivity! Why? Because they can focus solely on the matter at hand. Every time you do this, you give yourself a gift of immense value: your time.

What are the results of your daily efforts? Hopefully, you will have a better handle on them from this day forward!

Final thoughts

To recap the simple ACE process, focus your attention on the matter at hand. Ask the qualifying question, “What will this add to my life a year from now?” Choose those things that will matter, and apply effort to create your desired result.

Following this simple process drastically increases your chance of producing something worthwhile.

Test this concept in your own life. Doing so will give you something of immense value: the value of your time, which is your life, with a worthwhile result! What more could you ask for?

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Bill Abbate Leadership Writer and Editor in ILLUMINATION

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