Practicing What I Published

By LONNIE KING

A few days ago, I published my book Thriving Among Time Wasters: A Real-World Guide to Focus, Boundaries, and Sanity in a Distracted Workplace.

In it, I talk about the kinds of things that quietly drain our energy in the workplace—not just endless meetings or broken processes, but the emotional distractions, the interruptions, the tension and the moments that suddenly pull an entire team off track.

And almost immediately after publishing it, I found myself needing to take my own advice.

That’s probably a good reminder that this isn’t a Kung Fu master-and-grasshopper situation for me. I’m not standing on a mountaintop handing out productivity wisdom to the struggling masses below. I’m living in the same messy reality everybody else is.

The Innocent ‘Trigger’

This week, one short email changed the emotional atmosphere of an entire morning in our department.

The email itself wasn’t explosive. It wasn’t profanity-laced or openly hostile. In fact, from management’s perspective, it may have seemed completely innocuous and routine.

But almost instantly, productivity stopped. Coworkers gathered. Frustrations surfaced. Questions about trust and fairness emerged. People started interpreting tone and intent.

And before long, nearly an hour had disappeared into emotional processing instead of actual work.

That’s the kind of workplace time-waster we rarely measure.

Most conversations about productivity focus on systems, software, or scheduling.

But sometimes the biggest disruptions come from something much harder to quantify: the emotional aftershocks of poor communication or inconsistent leadership signals.

Employees do not spend all day simply doing work. They also spend time interpreting management.

And once that process starts, it can consume far more energy than anyone realizes.

The Time-Wasters That Don’t Go Away

One of the realizations I’ve had while writing—and now trying to live—the ideas in this book is that some time-wasters are never fully eliminated.

There will always be:

• difficult personalities
• unclear communication
• office politics
• unnecessary tension
• shifting expectations
• and moments where frustration threatens to hijack the day

Thriving doesn’t mean these things magically disappear. It means learning how not to surrender your entire emotional balance to them.

That’s easier said than done, of course.

Because in the moment, frustration feels justified. Sometimes it is justified. Sometimes the concerns are real. Sometimes the communication really is clumsy or discouraging or demoralizing.

But even when that’s true, we still face a choice: will I let this moment dominate the rest of my day?

That’s the question I found myself wrestling with after the emotional fog settled over our office.

The Hidden Cost of Workplace Frustration

The irony is that the original issue often becomes smaller than the reaction cycle surrounding it.

One tense email becomes:

• side conversations
• venting sessions
• speculation
• anxiety
• resentment
• and hours of reduced focus

I wrote Thriving Among the Time-Wasters because I’ve seen how often this happens in real workplaces. And apparently, I needed the reminder myself as much as anyone else.

Because the truth is, thriving isn’t about becoming emotionally numb or pretending everything is fine.

It’s about learning how to acknowledge frustration without letting it completely take over your attention, attitude, or identity.

What Thriving Sometimes Looks Like

Sometimes thriving looks impressive. Sometimes it means solving major problems, improving systems, or finding creative solutions.

But other times, thriving simply means refusing to let one frustrating moment consume your entire day, your attitude, or your identity.

That may not sound profound. But in modern workplace culture, it’s actually pretty hard to do. Especially in environments where emotional tension can spread faster than actual information.

I’m still learning this myself. Still practicing it. Still failing at it sometimes. Still needing reminders.

And maybe that’s part of the point.

Maybe thriving among time-wasters isn’t about mastering some perfect system. Maybe it’s about continuing to protect your focus, your perspective, and your peace in environments where all three are constantly under pressure.

If that sounds familiar, trust me—you’re not alone.

Grace and grit to you! –LK