This week I share with you Tip #7 from Ten Self-Care Tips: Looking for Sane Practices in Times of Insane Demands – Close the Tabs

This is a new tip for me, but oh so powerful. Someone must have been standing behind me, looking over my shoulder as I work when they came up with this one. Sitting at the computer, I would often have several tabs open on my browser – one tab for each of my four email accounts, the last couple of sites I opened, a google doc for reporting, and maybe more. So convenient because I knew right away whenever a new email would come in. Maybe it’s something urgent (rarely). More often, it’s something to distract me from the document I’m struggling to write. I just can’t seem to resist the temptation to stop what I’m doing and take a look to see what it is. Or I take a break to read again the article I just found and so enjoyed reading.

It’s a trap. When you leave multiple tabs open, you’re inviting distraction. You’re seeking it out. You’re sabotaging your work.

The remedy is to close your tabs. Keep open only those that pertain to your current focus. Period. Done. You will be much more productive and experience much less stress.

By the way, I’ve found this is also true with multiple projects. Like when you have eight ideas you’re working on and so you shift from one to another to another and never complete any of them. You complain that there’s not enough time in the day. Well, you can’t change the hours in a day, but you can do this: Close a tab—meaning, finish one. Get it off your plate. Then finish another. You’ll feel wonderful and may even begin to look forward to closing more tabs!

Where did I get this new tip? It’s from The Marie Forleo Podcast. Want more tips? Check out Marie’s show: How I Manage My time – 5 Tips to Win at Anything in Life.

Until next week –