Over they years I've used many tools including Franklin Planners (before the Covey years and I still have the beautiful and extremely large black leather zippered binder that held many years of schedules, to-do lists, and address books). I've been using software calendars for almost as long, including Meeting Maker, Lotus Notes, and of course, Now Up-to-Date & Contact. I was an early adopter of the Palm (yes, an actual U.S. Robotics Palm Pilot, thank you) and stay on the technical edge of computer/web/portable device calendaring. And with all of the high tech, I still fall back on 3x5 note cards, which I keep in a Pocket Briefcase from Levenger.
So, what have I learned?
Just this, really. Multi-tasking is a crock.
If I want to get something big done, I have to clear the decks and do just that thing. For example, if I need to write up a new marketing plan, I need to carve out big blocks of time to do the research, the thinking, the writing and re-writing. I can't get it done if I'm trying to do it in-between phone calls, meetings, and emails. And I certainly won't do a good and thorough job if forced to crank it out while dealing with many other distractions.
The same goes for my personal interests and hobbies. Sure, I'm interested in an amazing number of things. But to do anything well or to enjoy something properly, I can't do them all at once. I'm a compulsive, obsessive, completely gluttonous reader. But I also love movies - so much so that I spent a year building a movie theater in my home. And I love to cook.
But I am also a writer. I can't read everything I want, watch all of the movies and TV that I want, and research and cook and have any time to spend time with my family or make it into work. So I have to make choices. Family comes first. And we've got to eat, so I make plans for cooking that are less time consuming, but fun. And to get my writing done, even posts like this one, I have to focus my desires for entertainment and education into paths that will be useful. I have to cut down on my omnivorous reading and read what I need for my current project. For the past several months, with only a few deviations, I've been reading everything I can find on James Thurber, John McNulty, and the early part of the 20th century that may have touched on these two men. Now that I'm starting the writing (stage play and screen play), I'm tempering it with a bit of Mark Twain to I don't become lost in the powerful language and rhythms of Thurber and McNulty.
And I save the movies and TV for when I'm too exhausted to work any more. Probably around an hour or so at the end of the day.
Here are a few productivity tips from Captain Randy:
- First thing, every day, before you check your email or look for phone messages, review what stands before you, what you really want to get done.
- Next, review your email and respond to what you can quickly and efficiently. For things that require thought or other work, schedule time for them on your calendar and respond to the email indicating that you received the message and when you plan to have a response.
- Do the same with your voice mail.
- Now, if you can, quit from your mail, put your phone on Do Not Disturb, and do your work.
If you can actually follow these instruction, you're a better man than I am, Gunga Din.
Most days I get started this way, but before long the sirens are wailing and I step into my boots and put on my helmet and grab my trusty axe. I've come to accept that I won't get nearly as much as I wanted or needed to do on any particular. But as each fire is dealt with, I can repeat my little mantra, "review the email, check the phones, back to work".
And I'll be damned if things don't get done.
1 comment:
I don't think what we call multi-tasking is a good way to get anything done well and thoroughly, but I also know that sometimes so many 'fires' are burning that you have to do it. I think the key is: do you have to work quickly and keep your place unerringly in a lot of things zipping around you? or do you have to deal in production of high-quality output?
I don't think people actually multi-task. I think if anything they time-share, shifting focus quickly from one situation to another. So they are really working on one thing at a time, but shifting their focus rapidly from one thing to another at need. It's important not to kid oneself that one can read and really take in a report or an email at the same time as you are carrying on a phone conversation or while talking with a co-worker. If people are counting on you to listen carefully or read accurately, and need your OK or go-ahead on what they've told you, and you're trying to multi-task or time-share, you're letting them down.
The same manager or worker who's battling many fires and several ongoing situations, and three real emergencies, is going to have to take some time away (conference room, broom closet, or just a keep out sign on the door) from phone or meetings or whatever to get any in-depth planning done, or budgeting planned, or whatever.
I am shy of claiming things are gender-specific when it may be something quite different that causes a one-sided (or one-gender) display. I tend to think of it more as a knack or skill that one finds one can do when it is needed, with the trade-offs as described above. Perhaps women are more frequently (but not always!) put into the position of having to cope by multi-tasking, so they may develop an ability that remains latent in men. I do remember one (female) coworker who had a mug that said, "Nothing fazes me. I've brought up 5 kids." We all knew exactly what she meant.
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