Well here we are again, reflecting looking back on the year passed and ahead to the promise of a new one.
Yes, it’s resolution time
Everywhere you turn there is advice and strategies for how to make and keep your resolutions, some claiming to be scientifically based. There are even apps to help you stay on the path.
But something isn’t working because research shows that only 8% of our resolutions get achieved each year.
But whether you are in favor of making new year’s resolutions, or think it’s a waste of time, there’s one thing you ought to resolve to do next year, and beyond. And it’s something you probably haven’t thought about in this way before.
Unless you win the lottery, your life isn’t likely to change dramatically for the better overnight. Life doesn’t work that way. Results happen from changing our behaviors each day—our habits, our routines, our mindset. (This is one of the main reasons most of the medical and mental health community don’t put much stock in annual resolutions!)
And far and away the best thing you can do for yourself, no matter what you want to improve, is to be more productive with your time. Getting more done creates a myriad of virtues:
- Your sense of accomplishment increases, so your mental health improves
- Your stress levels reduce because you stay on top of things
- You make more money or are more likely to get the next promotion
- You have more time for other things (family, exercise, hobbies, etc.)
In the end time is the only constraint we cannot get more of. So if you want to achieve more of your goals, become more of the person you dream of being, getting more accomplished each day is one of the most certain ways of getting there.
Being More Productive
There is one simple key that almost everyone can do to become more productive. It’s something that we overlook even though it happens to us every day, almost all of the time. It doesn’t require you to work harder, or longer hours, and it doesn’t require you to acquire any new technology or expertise. And you can start doing it and being more productive right now, today.
For most of us our days are filled with constant interruptions and changing priorities. We get started on something but are barraged with all manner of forces vying for our attention—co-workers, customers, email, kids, phone calls, meetings, questions, bosses, etc.
We are under constant pressure to shift our attention to something else, something more “urgent” than what we are doing—to multitask. And our society not only considers it a virtue to multitask, in many circles its viewed as an absolute necessity.
But it’s wrong!
We may think we can multitask well, that we are getting more done by multitasking, but the facts and the research all say the opposite. In study after study, the results consistently prove that multitasking—trying to do more than one task at the same time—SIGNIFICANTLY reduces productivity. Worse still there is even evidence that it has a negative effect on your health and your career.
Battling Multitasking
The simple reality is this: the more you can stay focused on a single task the better you will do that task, and more you will get done. Understanding this fact of life—and of the biology of the brain—is the first step to becoming a better you, and getting more accomplished every day. (To fully convince yourself of this fact, read some of the research that you can find with a simple google search.)
So if you want to be more productive, and not just a little, but a LOT more productive:
Reduce your multitasking
That’s right focus on one thing, complete it and then move onto the next. It’s simple to say but much harder to do in practice. And we are so much in the habit of allowing ourselves to be interrupted and to think that doing more than one thing is more productive that we multitask out of sheer habit.
It’s funny because most of us intuitively know how devastating multitasking is and how productive we can be when we stay focused. Many get to work early, like my wife, because they know how much they can do when it is quiet and there are minimal interruptions. But still we allow ourselves to be fooled into a mindset where multitasking is a virtue and a necessity.
If you are going to really make a change and reap the rewards of being more productive, you have to change some habits. With a few small changes you will not only become more productive quickly, but you will realize and convince yourself more and more that multitasking is holding you back from achieving all that you can.
Quiet Time
The simplest thing you can do to get started and realize immediate results is to set aside “quiet time” each day. I institute this with our corporate and government clients all the time, and every time the results shock them.
Recently in a government client of ours where interruptions from phone calls and emails were causing rampant multitasking, we divided the team into two. One group was put on quiet time for a period—no phones, no email, just focusing on processing the work in front of them. The other would handle the phones while trying to work and after an hour they would switch, so that the phones were covered. In the first month alone they completed two-and-one-half times the work they had done in previous months!
To institute quiet time for yourself or your organization here’s what you do:
- Set aside a fixed amount of time each day for not multitasking. It’s good to start small like an hour, but it has to be at least 30 minutes or you won’t have time to get sufficiently engaged to see productivity increase.
- Ensure you have sufficiently blocked the interruptions by going to a quiet place, turning off the phones, gate-keeping so others can’t interrupt your team, etc.
- Keep track of what you accomplish during quiet time and during the rest of the time.
- Review how much got done during quiet time and during the rest of the time—seeing productivity double during quiet time is normal.
- As you convince yourself and others that quiet time increase quality and productivity, increase the amount of quiet time each day.
Of course you have to deal with some interruptions—you will probably not be able to block them all. But if you try this for a week you will quickly realize that many of the “urgent” issues that that compelled you to multi-task, could actually wait an hour or two until you were finished with your task and able to shift your attention.
Reducing multitasking and staying focused more and longer on tasks is the fastest way to increase your personal productivity, and the productivity of your team. Start making quiet time a part of your routine and you will find that achieving those new year’s resolutions a whole lot easier and more successful.
Now I have a favor to ask you. Please share with us strategies you have used to block interruptions and reduce multitasking. And if you try “quiet time”, let us know how it worked and what obstacles you faced.
Happy Holidays! And here’s to making your making 2015 your best year ever.