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Maybe it's because the new fiscal year is right around the corner or because I recently relocated (from southern Connecticut to the Boston area), but lately I've been feeling like I need to make some changes in the way I do things, let's call them "New Fiscal-Year Resolutions"! One area where I know I need to turn over a new leaf is in managing my time both at work and at home. I am a compulsive multitasker, but I'm starting to think that this isn't working for me.
In my quest for some new time management pointers, I came across this (rather long) talk given by Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon professor made famous by his "Last Lecture". A dedicated father, husband, and professor given 3-6 months to live after he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, Pausch understood the importance of time management. In this lecture given at the University of Virginia in November 2007, Pausch mentions the competing forces of efficiency and effectiveness. He notes that though multitasking may allow you to drive multiple tasks to completion at one time (efficiency), you may not receive the best results on each of the individual tasks (effectiveness). He gives the example of combining a get-away with his wife and a guest lecture at a university in the same weekend trip, which would be efficient, but not necessarily effective, as the two tasks compete with each other. This really got me thinking: we do so much multitasking, but is it really helping to get our work done?
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As I sit at my desk right now, I have several windows open on my double monitors: MS Word, browser windows for the commonground website, my gmail account, and several other sites I monitor throughout the day, my Outlook inbox and Webex (yes, I'm listening into a webinar as I write this!). While I acknowledge that this means I will have typos in my blog that I'll have to go back and fix later and that it will probably take me longer to write this than if I focused solely on writing, I have the undeniable urge to multitask. Or maybe it's not multitasking; maybe multitasking is impossible! Maybe it's demitasking?
I came across this term for the first time last week in a blog written by Elysa Rice. Rice refers to an article written by Jody Gilbert, who notes that we are often tempted to "mentally engage in several things at once", which is proven ineffective.
So, my first resolution for the new fiscal year (I'll warm up for this starting today): stop multitasking! How can I argue with a dying man's advice? Today I'm going to (try to) stop sacrificing effectiveness for efficiency's sake. My plan is to break tasks down into small, manageable steps and focus attention on each until it is completed. I'm turning off my Outlook email notifications so that emails won't distract from important tasks. Furthermore, I'm not going to neglect to give email the dedicated attention it deserves.
I have several methods of time management that I'm planning to try out over the next few weeks. Hopefully by October 1, I'll nail down a system that works! I'll keep you posted on my progress.... I'd also love your advice! What works for you? Do you think multitasking is possible? I still want to believe it is, but that I'm doing it wrong!
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Comments
08.26.09
i'm guilty of "demi-tasking" myself and i've realized it to be increasingly detrimental as it seems to have even lowered my attention span on activities and focusing on anything seems to get harder. there's no fiscal year-end at my end as i just finished university but i'll join you in the resolution regardless.
i don't know if you use a mac or not but in their operating system they have a feature called "Spaces" which is essentially multiple desktop screens so you can drag the window you're currently working on to an empty screen and focus on that while the remaining windows stay hidden in other screens.
though i don't know of any off my head but i'm certain such alternatives exist for windows as well. you'll probably see some hits if you google "spaces for windows". maybe that might help a bit. obviously the simplest alternative is just closing all other windows :)
anyhow, good luck to us both.
cheers.
08.26.09
Thanks for the tip on Spaces! I found this XP alternative for free. I'm going to give it a shot:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/cc817881.aspx
I agree 100% about the fact that we've lowered our attention spans by allowing ourselves to be distracted by so many things!
08.26.09
Lauren,
If you haven't already, check out Tim Ferriss' "4-hour Workweek". He has a lot to say on this topic that's very practical and can be implemented minutes after reading about it.
-Akshay
08.26.09
Have you ever heard of the "big rocks" theory? It's this hokey thing where a trainer comes out with a jar, three big rocks, and a million little rocks. When she puts the little rocks in the jar, she can fit the big ones in. But if she starts with the big rocks, then the little ones all fit, too.
As lame as this sounds, it totally works for me. Make a list, do the big things first, and everything works out. Every time.
08.27.09
This is definitely a challenge I've been facing, so I'm glad you bring it up. I'll wait breathlessly for your further findings :)
08.27.09
Tim Ferris' book is a great suggestion. I have paged through it but owe it revisit.
Tomorrow I'll be attempting this 18-minute plan to manage my day, which I came across a few weeks ago on a Harvard Business Journal blog. It requires you spend 5 minutes each morning actually scheduling every hour of your day along with 1-minute breaks to check on your progress at the end of each hour! A little strict for me but we'll see how it goes.
http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/bregman/2009/07/an-18minute-plan-for-ma...
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