The Magic of Doing One Thing at a Time

This article was published on Linkedin - HR Blog

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.

Bosses: Stop Doing These 10 Things

This is from an article on Information Management and SourceMedia

Here’s a few more “fresh” suggestions provided by clients for publication purposes since I wrote the original post. (Note to readers, this and the predecessor post with comments are ideal for printing and quietly leaving behind on the boss’s chair.)

At Least 10 More Things to Stop Doing if You’re the Boss

1. Cut what? Don’t expect us to heed your words on austerity/change/doing more with less if you’re not changing and you’re not cutting back. And thanks for telling me all about your new boat two weeks after we took a pay cut.  That was special.
2. Accountability is for Everyone. Stop avoiding THE performance problem on the team. We’re watching your own performance on this one, and you’re credibility clock is just about out of time.
3. If I Need a Friend, I’ll Get a Dog. Stop trying to be my friend and focus on being my boss. I need a boss who tells me what I’m doing right and importantly, what I’m doing wrong and holds me accountable to improving on all fronts. I don’t need someone who uses a faux friendship to avoid helping me grow.
4. Fewer Clown Rodeos, Please. Quit descending upon our facility like a conquering general expecting a parade. If you have to show up, why not show up unannounced and see what happens on a day when we’re all focused on working instead of worrying about entertaining the clown from corporate.
5. They Can’t All Be Strategic! Stop saying “yes” to every project that comes along. You’ve more than succeeded at ensuring that we have too few resources chasing too many projects. It’s time to learn that powerful word, “No.”
6. How Old Are You? Quit yelling at us in public. Come to think of it, quit yelling at us. Grow up.
7. Everyone on the Planet Except You Knows This! Stop shooting down our ideas in brainstorming meetings. You must have missed the day in life when they taught ALL OF US the rules of effective brainstorming.
8. Quit Hiding Under Your Desk. Stop dodging the angry customer calls and dumping them back on us. You might learn something.
9. Everyone on the Planet Except You Knows This, part 2. Quit trying to pass off your growth targets as strategies. Growth is an outcome, not a strategy!
10. Stop. Reverse That. Quit taking credit for everything that goes right and passing off blame for everything that goes wrong. You’ve got that backwards.

The Bottom-Line for Now

If you’re the boss and you’re doing any of the above, cut it out. Seriously.

If you’ve got some more polite or not so polite suggestions for the boss, feel free to pass them along.

This blog originally appeared at artpetty.com.

Unleash Your Inner Entrepreneur

Another set of super tips from Robin Sharma

This month I invite you to focus on unleashing your inner entrepreneur so you innovate, execute and deliver results at a level called wow.

First, here are 5 Brain Tattoos to play with:

1) To have the results that ultra-successful performers have, you need to be willing to do the things that only ultra-successful people are willing to do.

2) The discomfort of change is always better than the heartbreak of complacency.

3) What the victim calls Genius, the true entrepreneur knows as practice.

4) Education is inoculation against disruption.

5) There's zero point in masterfully doing the wrong things.

Second, I've recorded this quick learning video from my hotel room on a recent tour to help you win in your work.

Watch it now:
http://www.robinsharma.com/blog/03/unleash-your-inner-entrepreneur

In Leadership, 

Robin