Learning something fast requires concentration. To make sense of it all requires you to really wrap your brain around it. So does coming up with a new strategy for a perplexing sales problem or figuring out how to enter a new market.

Distractions of any sort slow your absorption of new material. Every time you jump off-topic, you waste hours of time getting your head back into the task at hand.

Yet most sellers are totally oblivious to the
#1 distraction of all – checking email.

Research shows that the average smartphone user checks for messages every 6 and a half minutes. Personally, I fight the same temptation when working on my computer. Take a look at yourself during the workday.

• When was the last time you checked email? ____ minutes ago
• If you get an alert, how long before you check it?____ minutes
• Do you get twitchy if you haven’t checked email for a while? Yes | No

The pull of email is strong – especially when you’re struggling to learn something new. It gives us our poor overwhelmed brain a little relief while we mindlessly scroll through recent messages. We feel like we’re accomplishing something when we send off a reply. We even feel like we’re being more productive by doing this.

We couldn’t be more wrong. We are only lengthening our path to proficiency and decreasing sales productivity. We’re learning slower, remembering less and not accessing our best thinking.

As I write this, my email program is turned off. It has to be. I can’t stand seeing that little icon that tells me I have 5 messages I haven’t read. It seduces me. I need to focus on my work at hand.

On my cell phone, I’ve deactivated email notifications – again for the same reason. To resist the temptation to check each new message as it arrives. If I allow that to happen, I get sucked down a rabbit hole. I feel like it’s imperative to respond immediately that my prospect (friend, colleague) is anxiously awaiting my answer. They’re not. It’s just my ego thinking that I’m so blasted important. I’m not.

Be smart. Especially when you need all your wits about you. Turn off your cell phone entirely for periods of time. You’ll quickly discover that your prospects won’t evaporate into thin air and that your customers can wait. Amazing!