Bella the Boxer's Time Management Tip #2: Dump the Doggone Distractions

A few weeks ago I shared a time management tip from my book, Secrets of a Working Dog: Unleash Your Potential and Create Success. It was "Plan Your Day." Simple enough, right? Read the blog post right here.

Well, today's tip sounds just as easy—but as we all know, it takes effort for an old dog to learn a new trick (notice that I didn't say it was impossible! Old dogs can indeed learn new tricks, especially if we get snacks.)

Tip #2: Dump the Distractions

Why do dog trainers tell new puppy parents to pick up their socks and underwear? Because if it's in plain sight, it's fair game. (According to Veterinary Pet Insurance, sponsor of the famous "Hambone Award," socks and underwear are the two most common surgically removed items from pets.) But humans are easily distracted, and they forget. And distractions are everywhere.

If you are addicted to email, turn it off. If gossip headlines are your Achilles' heel, close your Internet browser. If you can't let a ringing phone go unanswered, pull the plug. "Easier said than done," you say. Yes, dogs, especially successful dogpreneurs, know firsthand that removing temptation takes a lot of hard work and discipline.

For example, I had to put away my beloved red rubber ball to finish my book. (Well, the truth is I accidentally wedged it underneath the sofa where it stayed stuck for a few weeks. But the result was the same. Distraction gone!)

If you lose focus and don't know why, start taking notes—write down everything you do during the workday. You'll quickly learn that you create your own distractions by making a telephone call or opening your inbox to send "just one more" e-mail.

Here's another idea. For people and dogs who like round, shiny red objects, Francesco Cirillo created a time management technique called The Pomodoro Technique that uses a basic red tomato kitchen timer to break tasks into 25-minute increments called "pomodoros," which means "tomatoes" in Italian.

Boy, do I love tomatoes. Especially the little cherry tomatoes that come straight off the vine…but I digress.

The goal of the technique is to keep you focused and working in increments, one pomodoro at a time, until a task is completed. At the same time, you keep track of every single interruption on a sheet of paper so that you can eliminate them over time. It's simple, clever and "Bella Approved" (check out the "Pomodoro Technique for Dogs?" link to one of my previous blog posts).

Plan your day, dump the distractions….and look for time management tip #3 next week!