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It’s amazing how time flies. It seems like just five minutes since Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher each contrived to miss a penalty against Portugal in the 2006 FIFA World Cup (c) as we must now call it to send England crashing out in quarter final glory.
Now it’s already South Africa 2010 and we’re ready to go through the whole thing again. For at least the first two weeks there’ll be three games a day to distract freelancers and home workers and prevent them from getting anything done. If you hate the whole jamboree you’re lucky, just turn the television and the radio off and you you can ignore it all. If you’ve more than a passing interest, you’ll need help combining work and distraction. And getting some work done.
I’ve seen every game of the last three World Cups and have developed some stategies to combine working well and keeping up to date. And yes, I know this is tongue in cheek, but for some it’s a real problem!
1. Use a second screen or a second computer
During the World Cup 2006, Internet TV was just getting going. To be quite frank, the quality wasn’t great, it was jumpy, grainy and slow. Four years later, both BBC and ITV channels broadcast over the Internet and even a half-decent 2MB connection should be enough to get streaming that you can watch games without getting that spinning ball that means the connection is buffering every 2 minutes.
2. Do the boring tasks
You can multi-task! We all have boring tasks to do in our businesses. The World Cup is the perfect excuse to get on with them. So, if you have a backlog of filing, accounts or simply organising your workspace (a fancy word for tidying up), you can go ahead and do those tasks AND feel virtuous.
3. Get up early
The World Cup always takes place in June and July. In Europe at least, it’s daylight at 4 or 5 in the morning at that time of year. It’s also quiet with nothing but chirping birds to distract you. As it’s often too hot at 3 in the afternoon, why not get up early and change the way you work?
4. Turn the sound off
A little way of trying to kid yourself you’re concentrating on your work is to turn the sound of and watch out of the corner of your eye. Well, it works for me!
5. Use live blogs or a live updates service
Are you really interested in North Korea against the Ivory Coast? (yes!) Technology now exists to enable us to keep up to date almost in real time without going anywhere near a television screen. You can get scores pushed to your phone or computer and not be distracted by screaming commentators. The BBC also has a live teleprinter service that will tell you when and where all the goals are going in. Personally, I find these more distracting than watching a game out of the corner of my eye, but of they suit you, go for it.
6. Don’t try to work whilst watching the television
After years of trying, believe me, it doesn’t work. Sit in front of the television with a beer, not your laprop. Relax and enjoy.
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