During the week are you fully engaged or do distractions like gossip, cell phone calls, email wars, election-year political discussions, kitchen conversations, surfing the Internet, or just simple “dawdling” affect your productivity?  Although important business metrics (things companies like to measure) include waste, breakage, machinery downtime, absenteeism, and utility bills, these things are often far less than the cost of lost productivity from employees who don’t focus. Distractions will always exist. But look beyond your valuable skills and abilities, and revisit your aptitude for staying focused. It’s a New Year’s resolution you can share with your employer, and it will pay handsomely in a tight economy where mission-focused companies win the day.

Adapted from UTEAP’s FrontLine Employee.