[Index: INTRO, Step 1, 1b, 2, 3, 3b, 4, 5, 6, 6b, 7, 8, 9, 9b, 10, 10b, 11, 12]

The Secret of Success Compression

In a bygone era, which actually isn’t too long ago, you could only be reached by phone, mail or an in-person visit. If you had a task to complete, you could shut your door and have your calls held.

Today, we have dozens of communication access points and devices that are constantly interrupting our attention from our productive tasks—e-mail, faxes, texts, IMs, RSS feeds, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Flickr, YouTube, etc., etc., etc.

Have we just learned to diagnose attention deficit disorder (ADD), or has our modern culture produced it? My guess is the latter.

Even I struggle with keeping the blinders on.

Tell me if this doesn’t sound familiar…
I start working on a project, like writing my Publisher’s Letter. I come up with a George Washington reference that I need to verify, so I go to Google. It leads me to Wikipedia, and I find four other interesting Web links on the page. One of those leads me to a video on YouTube. Five clips later, I find a really inspirational one about Amelia Earhart, which I am now Twittering and adding a link to on Facebook. I answer some questions on Facebook, and then I see some other interesting Tweets, so I start down those rabbit holes. I tag a few things to read later on del.icio.us and send two e-mails to colleagues about something I found. Then I notice 20 new e-mails in my inbox that I begin replying to. One person calls me after getting my e-mail. Forty-five minutes later, I look up and can’t even remember what I was working on!

This can happen all daylong, even all weeklong. You are incredibly busy, you’re working long hours and you’re exhausted, but, ultimately, you really aren’t making any progress on your high-priority goals.

You have to take control and stay in control of your attention and focus.

I learned three techniques that help me stay focused and produce more in less time.

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