Skip to content
benjf.com
benjf.com

  • Home
  • About
  • Technology
    • Linux Mint (Cinnamon)
    • ✉ Email
    • Privacy
    • Programming
      • HTML
      • CSS
      • Javascript
        • jQuery
      • PHP
      • SQL
        • SQL Server
      • Powershell
      • MS Access
      • WordPress
  • Opinion
    • ✞ Faith
    • ☺ For Fun
    • ? Politics
    • ? Random Awesomeness
  • Health
benjf.com

The Magic of Doing One Thing at a Time

benjf.com.blog@benjf.com, 2012-04-06

Source: Havard Business Review

Why is it that between 25% and 50% of people report feeling overwhelmed or burned out at work?

It’s not just the number of hours we’re working, but also the fact that we spend too many continuous hours juggling too many things at the same time.

What we’ve lost, above all, are stopping points, finish lines and boundaries. Technology has blurred them beyond recognition. Wherever we go, our work follows us, on our digital devices, ever insistent and intrusive. It’s like an itch we can’t resist scratching, even though scratching invariably makes it worse.

Tell the truth: Do you answer email during conference calls (and sometimes even during calls with one other person)? Do you bring your laptop to meetings and then pretend you’re taking notes while you surf the net? Do you eat lunch at your desk? Do you make calls while you’re driving, and even send the occasional text, even though you know you shouldn’t?

The biggest cost — assuming you don’t crash — is to your productivity. In part, that’s a simple consequence of splitting your attention, so that you’re partially engaged in multiple activities but rarely fully engaged in any one. In part, it’s because when you switch away from a primary task to do something else, you’re increasing the time it takes to finish that task by an average of 25 per cent.

But most insidiously, it’s because if you’re always doing something, you’re relentlessly burning down your available reservoir of energy over the course of every day, so you have less available with every passing hour.

I know this from my own experience. I get two to three times as much writing accomplished when I focus without interruption for a designated period of time and then take a real break, away from my desk. The best way for an organization to fuel higher productivity and more innovative thinking is to strongly encourage finite periods of absorbed focus, as well as shorter periods of real renewal.

If you’re a manager, here are three policies worth promoting:

1. Maintain meeting discipline. Schedule meetings for 45 minutes, rather than an hour or longer, so participants can stay focused, take time afterward to reflect on what’s been discussed, and recover before the next obligation. Start all meetings at a precise time, end at a precise time, and insist that all digital devices be turned off throughout the meeting.

2. Stop demanding or expecting instant responsiveness at every moment of the day. It forces your people into reactive mode, fractures their attention, and makes it difficult for them to sustain attention on their priorities. Let them turn off their email at certain times. If it’s urgent, you can call them — but that won’t happen very often.

3. Encourage renewal. Create at least one time during the day when you encourage your people to stop working and take a break. Offer a midafternoon class in yoga, or meditation, organize a group walk or workout, or consider creating a renewal room where people can relax, or take a nap.

It’s also up to individuals to set their own boundaries. Consider these three behaviors for yourself:

1. Do the most important thing first in the morning, preferably without interruption, for 60 to 90 minutes, with a clear start and stop time. If possible, work in a private space during this period, or with sound-reducing earphones. Finally, resist every impulse to distraction, knowing that you have a designated stopping point. The more absorbed you can get, the more productive you’ll be. When you’re done, take at least a few minutes to renew.

2. Establish regular, scheduled times to think more long term, creatively, or strategically. If you don’t, you’ll constantly succumb to the tyranny of the urgent. Also, find a different environment in which to do this activity — preferably one that’s relaxed and conducive to open-ended thinking.

3. Take real and regular vacations. Real means that when you’re off, you’re truly disconnecting from work. Regular means several times a year if possible, even if some are only two or three days added to a weekend. The research strongly suggests that you’ll be far healthier if you take all of your vacation time, and more productive overall.

A single principle lies at the heart of all these suggestions. When you’re engaged at work, fully engage, for defined periods of time. When you’re renewing, truly renew. Make waves. Stop living your life in the gray zone.

For Fun Health doing one thing at a timehavard business reviewproductivity

Post navigation

Previous post
Next post

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

  • Coercion and Loving God
  • Fire is power and they don’t want you to have it
  • Biden Too Old?
  • Telegram is awful for content
  • Want proof that nobody believes the government and media?

Recent Comments

  1. Hairstyles on How To Convert PCM to MP3
  2. TSQL – Loop Through Result Set WITHOUT Cursors – {benjf.com/_/} on TSQL – Simple Loop Through Result Set Using Cursor
  3. TSQL – Simple Loop Through Result Set Using Cursor – {benjf.com/_/} on TSQL – Loop Through Result Set WITHOUT Cursors
  4. Script Storage – {benjf.com/_/} on Script Storage Update
  5. benjf.com » Well, The World Is Going To End Again on End of the World Prediction “Best Practices”

Archives

  • September 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • May 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • September 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • July 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • February 2018
  • December 2017
  • September 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • December 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • July 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009

Categories

  • C#
  • CSS
  • EMail
  • Faith
  • For Fun
  • Health
  • HTML
  • Javascript
  • jQuery
  • Just Info
  • Movies
  • MS Access
  • Music
  • Opinion
  • PHP
  • Politics
  • Powershell
  • Privacy
  • Programming
  • Random Awesomeness
  • Self Hosting
  • SQL
  • SQL Server
  • Technology
  • Uncategorized
  • WordPress
©2023 benjf.com | WordPress Theme by SuperbThemes