Switching between tasks
Most of us spend our days jumping between tasks and tools.
In fact, most people average only 3 minutes on any given task before switching to something else (and only 2 minutes on a digital tool before moving on).
MORE IDEAS FROM THE ARTICLE
You can’t expect to focus non-stop on a project for days on end. But at the same time, you won’t see any real progress if you mindlessly jump from one task to another.
You need a work schedule that pairs periods of sustained focus with rest in a way that’s purposeful and powerful.
- Examine your current schedule (if you have one). Get real with where your time goes each day.
- Communicate with everyone about how your schedule is going to change and why it’s important.
- Experiment to find what works for you. There’s no one perfect scheduling or time management strategy.
- Focus on your health.
Split your day between Maker and Manager time:
- Managers cut up their day into one-hour intervals (or less) and bounce between tasks.
- Makers need long stretches of uninterrupted time (usually at least half a day at a time).
To protect your focus, try to schedule at least a bit of Maker time into each day.
- Large chunks of focused “flow” time for more demanding projects.
- “Themed” days to reduce the need to recalibrate between different tasks.
- Advanced planning so you can prioritize meaningful work.
- Realistic time set aside for admin, communication, and meetings.
- Clear expectations for your teammates so they know when not to interrupt you.
... and use office hours to keep your focus throughout the week. One example is the Free, Focus, Buffer system popularized by business coach Dan Sullivan:
- Free days are completely separated from business activities.
- Focus days are spent on your most important work.
- Buffer days are for planning, admin, and busywork.
... to reduce FOMO and productivity guilt. This will also help you to stay in the same mental space without worrying about what needs to be done:
- Go through your main tasks and divide them by either project, task, client, or topic.
- Divide those tasks into two categories based on their connection, an A and a B schedule.
Taking on additional tasks simultaneously can destroy up to 80% of your productive time:
- Focusing on one task at a time = 100% of your productive time available.
- Juggling two tasks at a time = 40% of your productive time for each and 20% lost to context switching.
- Juggling three tasks at a time = 20% of your productive time for each and 40% lost to context switching.
RELATED IDEAS
None of us can get creative in short 15-minute bursts of work sandwiched between a mandatory meeting and a sales team call. It is also a myth that people work for 8 to 10 hours a day.
Most people are productive in sporadic periods of time, like 15 minutes, followed by an interruption, then for 20 minutes, followed by a commitment/obligation/meeting and so on.
We need to align our schedules with our goals and create a strategy that helps us focus on deep work.
Maker vs manager: How to connect your schedule to your goals
blog.rescuetime.com
Work is never finished, and we are unable to disconnect from it, causing us to experience productivity shame, impacting our happiness and creativity.
The modern working profiles (like knowledge work and remote work) do not have strict guidelines on a day’s productivity or any clear deliverables. It relies on a constant flow of communication, collaboration and multiple switching of context.
Productivity Shame: How To Stop Feeling Like You Haven't Done 'Enough'
blog.doist.com
- Time blocking is a time management technique.
- This type of time tracking requires that you divide your day into defined slots or chunks of time.
- Each block of time is dedicated to completing a specific task
- When you manage your time in this way you are ensuring your work gets complete,
- And ensures you are just doing one task at a time and not multitasking
- This also means that you will not have to decide what to focus on.
- You will not be making constant choices about spending your time but simply following a time blocked schedule.
❤️ Brainstash Inc.