Ohhhh those pesky Millennials. Sales down? Blame the Millennials. Can’t find someone to work late? Millennials. Increased wait time for your drink at Starbucks? Millennials again. (Well, this one is probably true and is my main gripe…)
Every generation likes to blame the other for their woes. And it seems that you can’t blink without coming across another article blaming Millennials for something. Most of the gripes are nonsense, however, a recent article in The Economist paints a sobering picture of a favorite Millennial pastime that, if we’re honest with ourselves, we all do: Spending waaayyyy to much time on our smartphone and how its killing performance!
Some key takeaways from the article:
On average, we touch our smartphone between 9 and 120 times per….MINUTE;
Multitasking with a smartphone while working reduces your IQ by 10 points;
Constantly checking your smartphone teaches you to lose focus and trains you to seek distractions;
As a business transformation keynote speaker, I teach audiences how to transform their leadership and improve the decisions they make in business and life to achieve a level of peak performance with balance — not burnout. And I often talk about major decision-making traps we fall into. One biggie that negatively affects our ability to make good decisions while simultaneously decreasing productivity is our losing battle to e-Distractions. Our smartphones are kicking our asses!
Here’s one way to fight back and to start winning the battle against e-Distractions: Follow the growing number of artists and performers who ban smartphones at their concerts such as Beyonce, Alicia Keys, and Jack White and ban smartphones at work. Use the very cool Yondr pouch to help you pull this off. Buy one for all your employees and mandate that they use it during work hours. Believe it or not productivity, performance, and motivation will increase!
Because if you don’t do something to get control over your electronic life, the Millennials win. And as a proud Gen-Xer myself, I can’t stomach that. Plus, all my Baby Boomer friends are too busy worrying about how they’re going to retire with no 401K, savings, or other retirement vehicle to do anything about the pending Millennial takeover….
Take action NOW: Like any new activity, start slowly. At work, practice not looking at your smartphone for 45 minutes each hour. Give yourself a 15-minute break where you walk and stretch your legs and peek at your phone if necessary. At home, make family meals a “smartphone free zone”.
If you need help winning your own personal battle against electronic distractions, please checkout my new book that gives you tons of practical tools and techniques to help you kick your smartphone habit: The Mushin Way to Peak Performance: The Path to Balance, Productivity, and Success. Likewise, leave a comment below or hit me up on Twitter @mpveltri — just put your smartphone down right after you ping me!