next time you pray...ask for email to be down...

There I was...mid-week...working hard, in the thick of activity...when all of a sudden...

Like a black hole of technology...my email was down. Did you hear me?!?! My email was down!!!

Like Apollo 13, on the other side of the moon -- I had no communication to the outside world.

[Sshshhhsshh...don't tell anyone...it was wonderful...]

For about 28 hours, with the exception of a few treasured clients whom I was really needing to connect with -- I was none the worse for the wear. In fact, I enjoyed the peace and quiet.

Now, as a practice management coach and consultant who thinks she should know better, there I was, many times, caught stunned by the lack of bling-a-blings and darkly fonted new emails, begging me to be distracted from the all important tasks of servicing my clients and marketing to attract more.

"What will I do with myself," from this silent place?

Ah, it was peaceful. No interruptions. No distractions. No annoying to-do's to take me off course.

And, so, I was reminded of one of the fundamental, and easy-to-abuse, practice management principles: don't allow interruptions to waylay your productivity.

Start the task. Finish the task.

It's just that simple.

Perhaps I'll just not even go into Outlook tomorrow. Let's see what that does to my productivity!!

Try it: "You've NOT got mail!!!"