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Posts Tagged ‘multi-tasking’
Mastering Control Over Email & Twitter, Step 4
A couple of days ago I promised you 4 steps to conquering your email. In the last few days, I’ve written about 3: learning to controlling the information using a process, learning to control the technology, and learning to control your behavior. They are easy in the sense that they are not complicated or difficult to execute. But probably the hard part is going to be in changing your behavior. That’s never easy. But I promise you that it will introduce some peace and serenity into your life if you’re not constantly multi-tasking.
The 4th step is about easily sorting the important from the unimportant. So of course you need a good spam filter. If you are getting more than a few spam messages a day, you should look for another solution. The technology has advanced and it’s worth spending some time on. But in messages that aren’t spam, one of the easiest ways to sort the important from the unimportant is that probably the information that comes from a real human (friend, family, co-worker) is probably more important than “robo-messages” (coupons, newsletters, notifications, marketing messages). Is that a fair statement?
Well some people use “rules” in their email client so that some messages automatically go into a certain folder. This is one way to handle it, but personally I don’t like it. It’s bad enough to see how many unread messages are in my inbox, if I had those high numbers in other mailboxes too it would stress me out. Plus it wouldn’t be as efficient if I had to click around through a bunch of folders to see what needed my attention. Also the concern there is that I never get around to looking at some of those folders, so my number of emails grows and grows, both stressing me out and perhaps causing problems with my email client.
There is now a much better solution to “robo-mails” and I think it’s the biggest time saver I have seen in a long time. It’s called Otherinbox and if you haven’t gotten yourself an account yet, I suggest you visit now and get one “tout de suite.”
Tomorrow will be one more post on this topic, where I will expand a little bit about a topic I get a lot of questions about: filing your email messages…
Mastering Control Over Email & Twitter, Step 3
Ok, so I outlined steps one and two to managing email and Twitter, and I left you with a question about multi-tasking. If you leave your email client open, Twitter feed, Facebook & LinkedIn pages constantly open on your desktop, you are forcing yourself to multi-task all the time. The question posed yesterday was, “is multi-tasking good or bad?” To answer that, we have to take a look at what multi-tasking really is: It’s a myth. In reality, human beings can only hold a very small number (maybe one!) of thoughts in our head at the same time. So we’re not actually doing things simultaneously, we’re actually switching back and forth rapidly between those things. It’s called cognitive switching, and the ability to do it peaks around age 20. When switching between two tasks, you are probably giving at most 40% of your attention to each of those tasks, and the other 20% at least, is required for the switching. Study after study has shown that switching both lengthens the time it takes to complete a task, and decreases the quality or accuracy of the output. I read a study recently that determined that driver inattention is the cause of 80 percent of all car crashes, and the most common distraction is use of cell phones. And guess what? The numbers are the same whether the person was dialing, talking, or listening!
So we covered controlling the information and controlling the technology. Let’s talk about controlling your habits and your behavior, because that’s the hardest part. What’s the difference between Lance Armstrong & other cyclists or Michael Phelps & other swimmers? They probably have more natural ability than others, but not all others. The difference is the ability to focus. Athletes winning competitions, surgeons performing successful surgeries, scientists making breakthroughs….None of these happen without being “in the zone.” What’s “the zone?” It’s focus. So the question becomes, “how can you learn to focus better, so that you are better at the things you do?”
When you are working on important tasks, you will perform better if they are receiving 100% of your attention. Which means having the willpower to close your email, Twitter feeds, Facebook, etc. And the only way you will be convinced to do this, is if you value the benefits of focus.
Remember that cognitive switching means that you are only giving at most 40% of your attention to the task at hand. Some tasks only need 40% of your attention, or less. I often catch up with friends over the phone while I do household chores like empty the dishwasher. Chores require much less than 40% of my attention, so my friends are getting the bulk of my attention (which might be more than they are giving me! =)
But does the work you perform for your clients deserve more than 40% of your attention? Does driving deserve more than 40% of your attention, when it could mean the difference in life or death, for you or someone else? Does your family deserve more than 40% of your attention?
Let me be clear: I’m not telling you never to multi-task. I’m just suggesting that you be more selective, and more thoughtful, about when you do it, rather than having that be your default method of operating. If your email (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc) is always open and always downloading, then nothing ever gets 100% of your attention. Make sure there are times that you can devote to doing nothing but tackling the things on your to-do list, and when those important things come up, give them all of your attention. This is not news to you. I’m sure you do it when you have something really, really important to do, right? Well, does that happen often? And if not, does that mean that the bulk of the things you spend your life doing, aren’t really that important? Or is just that you never get to the important stuff because you’re too busy splitting your time between unimportant things, because it feels more productive?
We’ve talked about 3 steps so far, control over information, control over technology, and control over your behavior. Come back tomorrow and we’ll discuss the 4th step.
Mastering Control Over Email & Twitter, Step 2
Yesterday was step 1: mastering control over the information. Next, you need to learn to master control over the technology it comes in on. Having your email client always open, with messages automatically downloading and giving you an indicator, means that your email is controlling YOU. Same is true for your Twitter client, and your browser windows with Facebook & LinkedIn pages up. Here are a few steps that integrate a process for controlling information and for controlling technology:
- For email, turn OFF the automatic download, so that messages only come in when YOU click send/receive (puts the control back in your hands, rather than keeping you at the mercy of constantly flowing email messages).
- Set aside time to click that send/receive button only 2-3 times per day, allowing yourself at least one full minute (or until you’re done, whichever comes first) for each message.
- Be sure that in that minute, you have moved the message out of your inbox (delete it, file it, or move it to your to-do list). Your email tool should allow you to easily convert emails to tasks. If you don’t have a good system for your to-do list, consider reading my earlier post Are Your Productivity Tools Complicating Your Life.
- Take the same approach with your Twitter feeds and your other social media tools. Yes, Twitter is like a constant “great” party, but sometimes you have to be ok with missing the party to stay home, if you catch my drift. Put another way (from @cjromb): think of Twitter like a river, jump into the flow every now and then, but accept that you can’t touch every drop of water.
I know that you are thinking, “I can’t possibly do that!” It’s a common response, so let’s talk about what’s going on when you aren’t doing this…
If you are constantly checking your emails, (not to mention your Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter Feeds), what you are forcing yourself to do, is to constantly multi-task. Tomorrow I’ll continue the post where we’ll address whether multi-tasking good or bad, and later I’ll discuss the other two steps for mastering control over email and Twitter.