RealDolmen : Give elephants priority

Concentration capacity

We try to create an environment within our company offering room for peace and focus thus allowing us to fully develop ourselves. You can also help yourself with that in the morning, when your brain capacity is at its highest level, by focusing on your big 'elephants' instead of on the 'rabbits' that pass by. Rabbits are things like e-mails and small minor tasks that - everything taken together - take some time. Elephants are larger tasks that often require some thinking and full concentration. Muriel gave us the advice to start every working day with an elephant task that needs at least half an hour to an hour full concentration. During this period you close your mailbox, ask your colleagues not to disturb you and put your mobile phone out of your reach. A challenge as it turns out, as we lift our mobile phone on average 150 times a day. Because of the endless flow of information that we get in this way, we create a brain overload. We start multitasking (quickly answering that text message during a meeting or liking that photo while making a quotation) and our productivity immediately drops by 40%.

Besides, did you already know that, when you are interrupted, it takes about 25 minutes before you are back in your full focus? Attention turns out to be the new gold, the new scarce good in the business world. So give these elephants not only priority, but also your full focus.