Pittsburgh Legal Back Talk

Legal topics of interest to lawyers and consumers with a Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania focus.

1410 Posts and Counting

Making Every Minute Count.

Posted By Cliff Tuttle | July 10, 2010

No. 471

Entertainment is the enemy of productivity. It is ubiquitous in our world and that means it can hijack our thoughts and occupy our minds like a conquering army. Even the news broadcast contains a lethal dose of entertainment.  Press releases and film clips about the vacuous lives of celebrities are not news.

Television and radio commercials sow weeds in our memory garden.  They teach us to remember jingles and slogans in preference to names of people and appointments we need to keep. They also whisper temptation, hypnotically inducing us to donate money that ought to be spent elsewhere.

Some thoughts:

Don’t watch television without a plan.  Watch a specific television program for a specific reason and then turn it off. Get up and straighten up the room during commercials. Be especially wary of the local news.  You can get the gist of the news in about 30 seconds by checking the headlines on their web site.  And if you actually want to know about something you see there, you can read an article in about another 30 seconds.

Have something worth reading (that means useful information you don’t know or literature written by somebody smarter than you are) with you all day and read it in the minutes when you have nothing else to do. Reading during TV commercials requires discipline, but it can be done.

Don’t listen to the radio or anything else while working. It will only slow your mind down to a crawl.

When you work, strive to get into the zone, concentrating totally with no distractions.  Identify your most important task each day and strive hard to complete it. Eliminate distractions entirely during this time. That means no email, no phone.

Relax totally when it is time to relax.

Sleep totally when it is time to sleep.

CLT

Welcome

CLIFF TUTTLE has been a Pennsylvania lawyer for over 45 years and (inter alia) is a real estate litigator and legal writer. The posts in this blog are intended to provide general information about legal topics of interest to lawyers and consumers with a Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania focus. However, this information does not constitute legal advice and there is no lawyer-client relationship created when you read this blog. You are encouraged to leave comments but be aware that posted comments can be read by others. If you wish to contact me in privacy, please use the Contact Form located immediately below this message. I will reply promptly and in strict confidence.

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