By Sinead Mac Manus

One of the anecdotes in my ebook From Apps To Zen: 26+ Ideas for Building a Business with Balance is about my first proper job in an office. I had just graduated from University College Dublin and was working as a town planner in a large firm in the centre of Dublin. This was 1996 so we had email but it was not used to the extent it is today, in fact, I remember that paper memos were still very much the way to communicate in-house! The internet was fairly new too. Distractions at work were limited to being interrupted by phone calls, long (and boring) team meetings, or my annoying colleague rattling on about his weekend.

Today things are very different.

The pervasive nature of digital technologies - what I call the dai¬ly digital deluge - means an ever-growing stream of communication during our working day. We are bombarded by calls, voice messages, texts, emails, tweets, Facebook and Linkedin updates, news feeds, instant messages. And that’s before we get to the tantalizing content on the Internet. Combine this with 24/7 connectivity and we have a recipe for a very unbalanced working life.

One of the problems I have identified in From Apps to Zen is the issue of Busywork – our ability to fill our working hours with unimportant work leaving no time for work that is im-portant to you and your business. Overuse of email is the perfect example of this. A study of information workers in 2004 revealed that on average, people spent 23% of their working day dealing with email. Is this a good use of your time? Social media can also be a huge time-suck in our working and personal lives. Are you actually seeing a value in the connections you are making online, or are you just plugging away for the sake of it?

How do we stop the “Busywork”? I urge my clients to be mindful. Don’t start your week or your day without a clear idea of what you want to achieve; focus on reducing or eliminating repetitive Busywork tasks like checking your email every 10 minutes or reading news-letters or RSS feeds that aren’t adding value; Question yourself at regular stages during the day. Go beyond asking yourself “am I being productive or just active?” and ask yourself “am I doing Great Work or just Busywork”.

Another strategy I talk about in the book is the idea of filters. By filters I mean people and organisations who act as ‘hubs’ of information and expertise around a topic. So instead of trying to read 100 blogs a day in your field, you need to find professional bloggers and commentators whose JOB it is to read 100 blogs a day and sort and filter the best material. These are the people that you need to find and follow. For example, I find Mashable unbeatable for all the latest news and tips on the murky world of the web and social media and the Harvard Business Review blog for its mix of articles around business, innovation and technology. In a world of information overload, filters are a great way to save time and focus on what’s important.

Ever get the feeling that you are being pushed or pulled in a hundred directions? So much of our day can be spent responding and reacting to other people’s demands on our time and dealing with information constantly being ‘pushed’ on us. But there is another way: Don’t be a Push Me. Be a Pull You.

Being a Pull You means that you ‘pull’ information towards you when YOU are ready to process and deal with it, not the other way around. That means not opening your Inbox until you are ready to deal with the requests within. Not having social media updates streaming into your computer or smartphone. And, sometimes, turning your phone to silent while you get on with your important work.

If you are interested in reading more about these and 23 other ideas do download the free ebook here or come to one of my free workshops at New Media Knowledge.

About the author:

Sinead Mac Manus is founder of 8fold - a social business that helps people and organisations work more effectively and balanced in the digital age (www.eightfold.org). She blogs on simplcity, digital technologies and productivity in business at her blog From Apps to Zen and is the author of the free ebook From Apps to Zen: 26+ Ideas for Building a Business with Balance. She is a Train to Gain consultant and can offer free or subsidized consulting to London-based organizations with 5 or more employees.

Sinead will be running two free workshops for New Media Knowledge: Build your Digital Toolkit on Wednesday, 20th October 2010 (http://www.nmk.co.uk/events/604), and Upgrade Yourself! Working Smarter in the Digital Age, on 3rd November 2010 (to be announced soon).

Download now From Apps to Zen: http://www.eightfold.org/free-ebook/.