Technology has changed our lives. Gone are the days when we were able to check out and walk away from the office at night and not think about work again until we get back the next day. No smartphones, tablets, Facebook or twitter to interrupt our lives or drive our attention away from being present with the people around us.

In many ways, life was simpler. We focused on one thing at a time and we spent quality time with those around us.

As business owners it is easy to get distracted. You check your email, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, then jump on over to Pinterest, then you get a text you need to respond to and while you’re responding to the text the phone rings. Phew! It’s enough to drive anyone crazy.

Are you with me? Or are you multi-tasking right now? If you are multi-tasking, I suggest you take one minute to stop what you’re doing and read the rest of this this article.

The problem with distractions is that they keep you from doing what you need to do. You get sucked in to other people’s agendas. You end up spending our time doing things that steal your time. And, then you get frustrated because you didn’t finish what you needed or you didn’t quite reach our goals on time. Does this sound familiar?

Below are a few tips I’ve learned over the years that has made a huge difference in my daily productivity. When I stick to working this way I get so much more done, I feel more productive and I can stop thinking about work when I’m done, because I know I did what I needed to do and I’m on the right track.

1)      Start your day reviewing what you need to get done for the day, or even better, the night before, get clear on what you need to accomplish the next day.  What are the top three priorities?

2)     Single task: Think you get more done when you multi-task? Actually, your brain is not able to multi-task. Instead of doing more than one thing at once, you flip back and forth in your mind. This can be draining on your energy. You actually get a lot more done if you focus on one thing at a time.

3)      Before you open any email start working with your most important project. Don’t check your email until you have completed the work on your most important project for the day.

4)      If you need to get into your email to do your work, make sure you go in only to do what you need, and leave your unread emails alone.

5)      Check your email at a certain time each day and set a timer to allow yourself a certain amount of time to get through your inbox. Handle each email once: Respond, file or delete.

6)      Do not keep your inbox open while you work, unless you need to use your email to do the work. A good way to avoid distractions is to turn off incoming emails if you are in a program that allows you to do that. Make sure to turn off your email notifications as well so you don’t get interrupted each time an email comes in.

7)      Schedule time for when you are going on social media. Set a timer to avoid losing track of time. Go in, do what you need to do and leave.

8)      Have a clear communication policy with your employees, customers and clients. Let them know which way you prefer to communicate with them and set expectations for when they can expect to hear back from you.

I think you will notice that you become much more productive working this way – at least that’s my experience.

I’d love to hear from you how you manage interruptions and distractions in your own business. Please feel free to share ideas on how you stay on track in your business.