want you to imagine that you’ve just knocked over an enormous jar of lentils on your kitchen floor. What do you do? You pick them up and put them back in the jar because you can’t really do much until it’s all cleaned up right? Would you try to reply to a message on Facebook while you’re scooping up lentils? That would be silly, it would slow you down because you’d only be using one hand. Would you write emails as you’re tipping the lentils back in the jar? Definitely not because you can’t really concentrate on writing until you’re done cleaning. Physical tasks are conveniently self-regulating. For example you can’t have a shower and mop the floors at the same time so we’re forced to single task jobs like this and they get done much faster.
Let me share something with you that just might change the way you work…
You can’t multi-task on mental items either.
We can easily flick from emails, to phone calls, to writing reports, to text messaging and because we aren’t moving our bodies or engaging our extremities, it gives us the illusion that we’re being total ninjas and successfully doing several things at once. The truth bomb is that we’re not being ninjas at all. We are simply taking all of those tasks and totally screwing them up, not completing any of them effectively and taking twice as long to work our way through our to-do list. Multi-tasking is a bad habit that’s totally breakable so I’ve popped together a list of 5 ways you can simplify your life today – and stop that counter-productive multi-tasking on mental items.
Divide your day into units of time
Divide your day into half hour blocks and start thinking in units of time instead of minutes and hours. So if you work from 9 to 5 that’s 8 hours which equals 16 units. If you allocate each task a unit of time for completion it will put you in the right head space to get your task done. Completing a task in 3 units of time seems a lot more manageable than ‘get all the things done by 5pm’.
Turn off all notifications
Your phone is your biggest enemy. Turn it off. If you can have it off all day, do that. You’ll be 1000 times more productive because every time you reach for your phone to ‘check’ Facebook your phone will be off and it will remind you that you’re not supposed to be checking Facebook. If you need to have your phone on for emergency calls from your kid’s schools or for casual work shifts leave it on, with the volume up, high on a shelf where you can’t reach it easily. It will stop you from doing procrastination ‘checks’ but you won’t miss any important calls. Note – You never need to ‘check’ Facebook. It’s still there and it’s doing fine so don’t panic.
Have a physical in and out box
Put all your bills, photocopying, mail, kid’s excursion notes, doctor appointments and vet notices in the inbox. Choose one thing at a time, complete the task and then put the item in the out box for filing or shredding. This will prevent you from sitting at your desk or kitchen table under a pile of never-ending paper that you just can’t get finished. By categorising the physical documents as ‘to do’ and ‘done’ it will help you keep to a manageable system.
Take notes
If something urgent comes at you, make a note of it and put it in your physical inbox. Just because you suddenly have to bake a cake for tomorrow’s morning tea doesn’t mean you have to write off the rest of the day with planning, panicking and procrastination. You’ll get to it later. Just do one thing at a time.
Keep calm
Rushing doesn’t help anyone. Just slowly work your way through your tasks and do the best you can. Three totally completed items is much better than thirty half completed items. Remember that.
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Do you need to cut back on the multi-tasking? Be honest now?
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Do you want more awesome tips on how to be the star of your own life and totally get your shit together? Follow Smaggle on Facebook. I post lots of cool tips over there… and sometimes videos of dogs being cute and Benedict Cumberbatch being sexy/awesome.
15 Comments
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I was just talking to my business partner about this, as so far this Monday morning I’ve found myself 1/2 completing zillion things (reorganizing my phone, signing up for a course, paying bills, checking email, etc.) and not concretely focusing on any one thing. It’s something I’d committed to working on in March, such a timely post!
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Oh wow so weird! That happens often on the blog – people decide to start concentrating on a thing and then I end up writing about it! It’s bizarre! Good luck – I’m concentrating on this today too. Lots of stuff to do today and it’s not going to get done if I keep changing my course!
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I think these are great recommendations, Carly! Especially the in and out physical inbox, which I will definitely start using 🙂 Something that really works for me is creating a weekly plan of the stuff I want to do and when, but only as a suggestion and I try to do as many things as I can.
xx Maria-
I have a weekly and a daily list! My daily lists usually get done but weekly ones tend to roll over a lot… hopefully this will help!
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Just this past week I’ve turned off all notifications on my phone. I can’t believe the positive difference it’s made not only to my focus but also to my phone’s battery life! So much less of a distraction, I can’t recommend it highly enough.
I love the ‘in’ and ‘out’ tray idea. We have them at work, so why not home? x-
How amazing is it? I’ve started having my phone on do not disturb almost all the time these days. Just gotta do it!
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Ha, ha – I actually can pick up spilt cereal from a packet while still feeding a child, responding to facebook, breaking up an argument, etc (and I do clean the shower when I am in it – getting wet anyway). Do I do it efficiently, or actually enjoy my time with my kids (say)? – well, no, it drags everything out more. In and out trays at home do work, too, as long as you are disciplined not to allow them never to be emptied. The rest are good reminders, thanks!
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Sometimes we don’t have much of a choice with multi-tasking do we? 🙂
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Yes, yes I do. Even though it’s something I’m hugely aware of doing, and I know I shouldn’t, I just slip back into the habit when under pressure!
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I’m concentrating so hard on not doing this today – I burried my phone in my jumper in the corner of my office! 🙂
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In, out, that’s what it’s all about! Such a simple idea but so effective. I’m totally going to try that. And stepping away from my phone, although I reckon that’s going to be a bit trickier!
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The phone is evil. It takes some pretty hard core training to do it! You can do it though… I have faith in you!
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Yes, I’m really “good at multi-tasking,” but find that when I’m my most productive and efficient self it’s actually when I’m being truly present to one task at a time. And I love the part about not rushing! Rushing is really an energy drain, that doesn’t have any payoff in productivity. Thank you!
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I’m a shocker for rushing, I have to really concentrate to slow down. Truth be told, I actually write these posts for myself half the time! 🙂
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We had a great business speaker come to my work and he said theres no such thing as multi-tasking, its called switch tasking and all you are doing is switching back and forth between tasks and your brain has to refocus everytime which takes sooo much longer. He had a great example to prove it to us: he had us write two sentences, one under the other. It took bout 10 seconds. Then we wrote them again but one letter from the top sentence then one from the bottom, then one from the top then ome from the bottom and so on until both sentences were finished. Not only was it much harder and made ur brain hurt concentrating but it took 10 times as long. It really proved the point that there is no such thing as multitasking!
