Something that makes successful people stand out is their ability to avoid distractions and learn to say “NO”.
It is not rude to avoid getting drawn into lengthy conversations at the start of the day when the first order of business is preparing the schedule and setting priorities as well has having some thinking time.
If a colleague or employee needs to speak to you about something significant it is perfectly acceptable to tell them that you will get back to them with a convenient time once you have checked your diary.
While courteous and amicable relations in the office are necessary, excessive time spent on social chat is not.
Similarly, feeling obliged to deal with all the new emails, texts or other notifications immediately is not helpful to success. There may be some communications that are urgent and should go on the high priority list for the day, but others can wait. Again it is not rude to delay replies if the later response is courteous.
When a business is having problems it can be difficult to maintain the morning arrival rhythm that is characteristic of successful people, but even if there are urgent actions to be taken they cannot be done if the mind is overwhelmed with too much detail, not to mention the distractions from the outside world of social and news events that have occurred since the previous day.
Effective action whether it is dealing with a problem or putting in processes to move a business forward comes from learning to compartmentalise and to put aside distractions. You need to reclaim your brain and learn to say “NO”.
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