It has been said, the average worker has 50 interruptions a day, of which 70% have nothing to do with work. If your productivity (work or study) is suffering from regular distractions, you could try a few things such as avoiding eye contact when someone walks by your desk. Whilst this may deter chatty colleagues or friends, it probably won’t do much for any office romance or friendships! For a friendlier approach, the latest Management Today magazine recommends using noise-blocking headphones, attaching a ‘do not disturb’ post-it note to the back of our chair or politely advising colleagues that you need to work undisturbed. It does beg the question though…what about all those interrupting emails… or worse, those blogs you get email alerts about and want (have to) read!!?!? It might be a good time to do a time management course, or maybe just turn the internet and telephones off when you really need to focus. At university, the biggest distraction to study is Facebook and the text messaging, which seems to be incredibly addictive and URGENT to so many people these days. Of course, women are generally better at getting their work done regardless of interruptions if they have been a stay-at-home mum even if only for a little while. Women, especially mothers are very good at multi tasking, and getting everything they set out to do complete in a reasonable time frame. Obviously, the kids need to eat not only to stay alive but because they would get very noisy, and hungry, so not organising a meal is not an option, regardless of how busy you are with other things, including paid work. Living with dementia means you often don’t get things finished. You get a lot of things started, and a few things done, and lot of things remain ‘in progress’, unless you develop strategies to ensure you achieve your goals. My office is evidence of that as the ever-increasing piles of things to finish reading which also means things to write up in my reading logs, things to write, things to review, and dozens of other ‘things to do’ pile up around me. Having dementia has forced me to consider doing a time management course again, and I am often tell myself to have a ‘girl’ look instead of a ‘boy’ look when I’m searching for things or walking around in circles! Who knows if it really matters how we get things that are important done, or if we do get them done; the only person it matters to is usually the person who has set the goal, or your boss, or your grades at uni. If you really want to get something done, the mantra I use is borrowed from a Nike marketing catch phrase… just do it!