What would happen if you turned off your phone and your email and just focused on your work for a couple of hours? No emails, no phone calls, no texts. Don't worry; they'll be there when you come back.
What if you told your friends and family you weren't available during that time. What if you knew that for the next 1 or 2 or 5 hours, not a single thing or person would interrupt you. How much work could you get done? How much more focused would you be?
We're going to try it.
Starting this summer, the counselors in our Collegewise Irvine office are going to start scheduling up to five hours a week of "Quiet time." During that time, we won't be answering emails or phone calls. We'll just be focusing on our work, like reviewing applications and
essays, researching colleges for students, going through our files and
checking on the progress of our students.
We won't even knock on each other's doors and ask if we need anything from Staples or if we'd like more coffee. Quiet time will be sacred.
We think it's going to help us get more done in less time and be even more effective in our work. We think we'll get to spend more time with the families in our program. We'll also get to leave work at a reasonable hour more often, even during busy season.
As great as constant communication may be, we're all having to contend with a lot more interruptions than we ever have before. There's something to be said for focused, uninterrupted quiet time to just get your work done. We're going to try it; I think students should, too.
Thanks to Rework for the suggestion.