CVS Blog » Time Management

Multi-tasking

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 23:39:23 +0000

I thought that multi-tasking was specific to the female of our species – apparently not. So I could not resist this article to restart my blogging.

This great article by Mary McDonald, CEO/CTO of the McDonald Consulting Group http://www.mcdcg.com/10.html , an occasional client of mine, explains why multi-tasking can be detrimental to productivity.

Multi-tasking vs. Single Focus

People have different opinions on multi-tasking vs. one focus approach… so which is better?

“The Myth of Multitasking” by Christine Rosen details several reasons why multi-tasking is not the optimum approach:

a fall in IQ (more so than if the subject were smoking marijuana
decrease in learning
negative impact on productivity (affecting the economy?)
lost ‘brain time’ as the brain works to juggle several tasks
and many more.

I’ve seen first-hand how multi-tasking affects our decision making — while sitting at a light waiting to make a left, I watched a woman coming through the intersection from the other side, talking on a cell phone, and drive right into a telephone pole. She never braked until she actually impacted the pole; and she continue to chat as she got out of the SUV to inspect her damage! Unluckily for her, a patrol car was at the red light on the cross street; he simply flicked on his lights and pulled over to write her up.

When trying to get a project complete, divide the project into smaller tasks. This tip: do those smaller tasks in their entirety prior to moving on to the next step.

Good ways to accomplish this:

ignore the phone and email while working on a project
set aside time on your calendar to do research, gather materials, and write rough drafts
work from start to finish without pause, if possible
if you must break, take a break at a logical stopping point, and leave your materials in place for easy restart

WARNING: These simple ideas may cause you to become more focused, productive, and happy. PROCEED WITH CAUTION!

Terence Kierans CAVB (Certified Australian Virtual Business)
Principal, Cyberspace Virtual Services, Western Australia
www.virtualservices.com.au – Experience the Difference
www.virtualservices.com.au/CVS_blog – My contribution to business owners
www.avbn.com.au – Australian Virtual Business Network—You Deserve the Best
2007 Thomas Leonard International VA of Distinction Award Nominee
Contented Member of ‘A Clayton’s Secretary’
Use our skills to help you succeed
Tel: 61 8 9304 6983 Fax: 61 8 9304 3202 Mobile: 61 414 25 1091 UK Residents: 07092391723

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Allow Your Email Messages to Accumulate

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 03:19:40 +0000

Email has become a necessary evil. Let those messages accumulate a little before interrupting what you are doing to respond

Even if your business structure requires prompt response to email messages try only responding once every half-hour or even hourly. Doing it this way will decrease the number of interruptions to your workflow. It may not be possible for you to make use of this strategy, but if you can, then there is a number of benefits.

Very often, relevant information supplied in email messages tends to arrive bit by bit. So, by responding to your email messages only periodically, you can collect those threads all at once, reducing the amount of time spent on each issue. Using this approach will also minimise indulging in trivial email discussions.

Having problems coping with all that paperwork?
Turn those piles into files and find any document
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CRISIS MANAGEMENT

Sat, 08 Nov 2008 06:57:48 +0000

By: Dr. Donald E. Wetmore

Crisis Management, for the most part is when a deadline has snuck up behind you and robbed you of all choice. And crisis management, for the most part, is poor time management. Why? You’re under pressure, maybe cutting corners. Things can slip through the cracks. Your stress level is increased. The quality of your performance may not be what it ought to be.

I have been amazed through the years when my college students would hand in term papers and inform me that they didn’t have enough time to do a good job. I would reply, “When in the future will you get more time to redo it because if it’s as bad as you suggest, I’m going to give it back to you to redo.” You don’t have the time to do it right; where will the time come from to fix it?

I would suggest that if you find yourself in Crisis Management a lot, it probably has less to do with your day-to-day responsibilities and more to do with a lack of anticipation, because most of the things that put you into Crisis Management are things that are capable of being anticipated.

USE A CRISIS MANAGEMENT LOG

A problem well defined is 95% solved. If you have an accurate accounting of your time crunching crises, you’ve gone a long way to reducing them in the future.

Here is a good exercise to help reduce Crisis Management. For the next two weeks, run a Crisis Management Log. Nothing fancy about it at all. Simply take a pad of paper and entitle it “Crisis Management Log” and for the next two weeks when you encounter a crisis, log it in. Put down the date and time it occurs and a little detail, so that two weeks later when you go back to review, you will remember the particulars. After two weeks of accumulating this data, go back and review every crisis you encountered and ask yourself, “Which of these could have been avoided?”

Most people discover that about 20% of the crises they suffered through were unavoidable. “Stuff Happens.” We cannot eliminate all crises.

Most people discover that about 80% of the crises they suffered through could have been avoided with better anticipation and planning. After running your Crisis Management Log, start taking the corrective steps to reduce the frequency of crisis management events by, for example, starting items sooner or requesting needed information sooner rather than waiting until the last minute to receive it.

Would you like to receive free Timely Time Management Tips on a regular basis to increase your personal productivity and get more out of every day? Sign up now for our free “TIME MANAGEMENT DISCUSSION LIST”. Just go to: http://www.topica.com/lists/timemanagement and select “subscribe”. We welcome you aboard!

Dr. Donald E. Wetmore-Professional Speaker
Productivity Institute-Time Management Seminars
127 Jefferson Street
Stratford, CT 06615
(800) 969-3773
(203) 386-8062
fax: (203) 386-8064
Email: ctsem@msn.com

_____________________________________________________________

Terence CAVB (Certified Australian Virtual Business)
Principal, Cyberspace Virtual Services, Western Australia
www.virtualservices.com.au – Experience the Difference
www.virtualservices.com.au/CVS_blog – My contribution to business owners
www.avbn.com.au – Australian Virtual Business Network—You Deserve the Best
2007 Thomas Leonard International VA of Distinction Award Nominee
Contented Member of ‘A Clayton’s Secretary’
Use our skills to help you succeed
Tel: 61 8 9304 6983 Fax: 61 8 9304 3202 Mobile: 61 414 25 1091 UK Residents: 07092391723

Having problems coping with all that paperwork?
Turn those piles into files and find any document in 10 seconds
or less!
http://tinyurl.com/64ag2

Share and Enjoy: