Personal Productivity Part 2: Be Present – Multitasking is Your Enemy!

4 Must Do Changes to Your Routine to be More Productive

Meet your skill improvement goals by using the 4 changes below.

1. Intent – Recognize Your Productivity Enemies!
2. Process – Remove Distractions from Processes.
3. Tools – Use Existing or Choose New Tools.
4. Technology – Tips to Remove Distractions.

Productivity is a skill that takes planning, intent, reflection, and the ability to adjust your behavior.  While some people are able to achieve a lot without thinking about their process, the vast majority are not.  If you want to improve your productivity at work and home, read on!

Our Productivity Seminar covers these and many more topics in an experiential way.  www.dataanalysis.com/speaking  Info@DataAnalysis.com.  Contact us to bring Darrel Raynor in-house to help uncover productivity drains and to help you break free of habits that have sprung up over the years.

This post (Part 2 of 3) discusses four ways to improve your personal productivity.

1. Intent – Recognize Your Productivity Enemies!

At this point, there have been countless studies and data supporting not multitasking.  Quick definitions:

• Multitasking – Doing more than one thing at the same time.
• Task Switching – Quickly changing tasks before they are done.

Multitasking is bad, in any form other than walking and chewing gum at the same time.  Any type of complexity in your task makes it a bad candidate to try to squeeze in while working on other tasks.  This includes anything that does not pertain to the task at hand.

• Reading and sending emails, IM’s, Chats, Slack messages, and the like.
• Talking on the phone, any e-device like Facetime, or in person.
• Editing any document in any way.
• Computer or any e-device use such as social media, web browsing, searching, etc.

Ask yourself, “What effect will these steps have on my Personal Productivity?”

Let’s let you be the judge!

Start a simple interruption log of all interruptions you face for a week.  Include the time you spent on them and the time it takes you to redevelop the deep context in order to do work on your original task.  At the end of the week, if you have been true to your log, you will be a firm believer that Multitasking is the biggest productivity enemy of them all.

If this seems overwhelming or you do not even have the time to keep a simple log, or you know yourself well enough to know you will not do it, take my word for it.  I have helped dozens of people directly and thousands indirectly through our seminars on Personal Productivity and have coached executives and others through this process.  Almost unanimously, they agree that following our process to rid themselves of as many Multitasking situations as they can greatly improves their productivity and a side benefit is stress will also melt away.  Contact us to bring the Seminar in-house to your organization or to schedule a private seminar online.

Task Switching, can be good or bad.  Good Task Switching is when you decided, usually ahead of time, when you will switch to another task.  For instance, you can say, “I will weed this section of the garden until there are no weeds higher than an inch or so,” or “I will weed the garden until it is 5:45.”  Either way, you have a goal and can concentrate on this manual task until you reach your goal.  Remember, reaching goals feels good and lends a sense of purpose.

Bad Task Switching comes from, you guessed it, interruptions.  Many interruptions, as we now realize, come from allowing Multitasking to creep into your normal processes, undermining your productivity.

2. Process – Remove Distractions from Processes

Once you have your interruption log, parse it for the primary processes you are trying to complete.  Anything not related to those processes that happened is your enemy!  Take the steps below.

• Move your “feed” type checking to certain times of your workday.
  For instance, work your email after you have worked on your most important priority for at least 45 minutes of dedicated time.  Don’t check your email first thing, you are likely to get sucked in by matters that appear urgent or important, but that really could wait until your real important tasks get some attention.
• Revise your primary processes to include “clearing” your workspace of all other work.
  I use a pile/folder system.  For each project, I take out a folder or grab a pile of papers both electronically and physically.  In my browser, I open a new instance or close out my other tabs and open all tabs in a folder at once, clearing my e-desk of distractions.
• Revise your peripheral processes to reduce the interruptions that you can at least partially control.  For instance, set “office or support hours” with your staff, peers, and family where you are typically available for at least half an hour.  Instead of encouraging them to contact you anytime or rebuff them when you are busy, make interacting with you easier.  I have people I try to call when in my car to make pleasant use of this time, unless I need to relax or keep up on my podcasts.
• Keep your Processes top of mind and improve them to reduce distractions as you go.  If you think about your processes as you are doing them, you will discover new ways to succeed.

3. Tools – Use Existing or Choose New Tools

There are as many productivity tools as there are words in this post, even after Bill’s edits!  There is no one size fits all nor does technology play a big role.  Tech is an enabler, but your processes are what are of primary importance.  I know hundreds of people who use online tools and dozens who (still) use paper diaries or organizers and either can work.  Here are my favorites and I have tried hundreds through the years both for myself and the myriad combinations at our many clients.

• ToDo / Project Tools – Asana.com – while this is not a magic bullet nor will it fit everyone’s work style, we run our company on it and have helped many clients implement and tailor Asana for their needs.
• Criteria to choose a tool set.
  • Works in your major environments.  Mine are PC browser and iPhone app with secondary use on an iPad.
  • Works the way you work.  I want a work queue and a quick way to save an idea or task as well as the ability to “hide” tasks from immediate view when concentrating.
  • Works in a way you will actually use.  It has to be fast, easy, yet deep enough to support hours of collaborative project work.  It has to have permissions and easy and immediate collaboration features.

4. Technology – Tips to Remove Distractions

Tech can and has helped us do more.  Recently, the underbelly of tech has started to be exposed.  Facebook scrolling was designed over time to be just as addictive as pulling a slot machine lever for some.  Twitter and other social services have proven that trolls (those who derive pleasure or income from stirring the pot) have influenced elections and drive polarization.  I just read that even having your phone in your view as you work reduces your ability to concentrate, even if turned off.

• Notifications are evil.  Anything that blooms up into your consciousness that is not directly related to your task at hand.
  • Email.
  • Chat / IM / Slack.
  • And especially Social Media on any medium.
  • Phone (includes, buzzing, blinking, flashing, vibrating, etc.).
• Whatever devices you use, get apps that track and limit your screen time.  Just looking at the stats each day has helped countless people reduce their unneeded screen time.  It is fine to relax now and then (not daily) and peruse all your various social media and web sites, but when it starts to drive a lot of your behavior you know you must take steps to reduce this incredible drain on your productivity.

Our most popular soft skills course covers these and many other topics in an experiential way, and while useful for everyone, is especially valuable for those in or seeking or wanting to improve their performance in formal or informal leadership positions.

Topics include: Who We Are & What We Do as Leaders, Change Yourself First, Set and Fulfill Expectations, Lead By Example: Model the Behavior You Want, and many more.  www.dataanalysis.com/training/courses/impactful-leadership-and-management-best-practices-for-supervisors-to-cxos

What Should Leaders Do to Leverage You and Your People?  Your Thoughts?

Thoughts on how you can best improve your skills that we did not touch on?  Good luck and keep your eye out for ways to improve your relationship and leadership skills!

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