you can drive and talk at the same time, albeit your precision with each is lessened slightly. you cannot however cook an omelet and drive at the same time. besides getting the grill in the car, the mental and physical coordination required doesn’t allow you to do both. it’ll get messy fast. seems obvious right?
there’s a more subtle but similar thing happening when attempting certain projects or tasks you’d like to accomplish throughout the day, sitting at your computer. certain high value, big thinking todo’s simply aren’t happening. this has been on my mind a lot lately as i continue to look internally for scaling IT Arsenal’s business while continuing to provide high value. (and subsequently shutting out a lot other inputs/distractions, sorry i’ve been a little less resource heavy in my posts as of late)
i’ve finally realized i am task ignorant. i cannot complete the same tasks everywhere even if it’s physically possible to do so, despite all my will power. this was a tough realization and one others might find useful.
have you wondered why you’re not making more progress?
consider (not that you’re doing too much, like most people will tell you )… consider that tasks require a certain amount of mental bandwidth to be worked on effectively. evaluate if you should crack open e-mail, or a document, or an FTP program by how much bandwidth is needed on your attention span and brain. this simple awareness is something that easily gets ignored. we don’t often say, “this isn’t the appropriate time for task X.”
if that bandwidth isn’t available because of other emotional, mental, or physical things going on in your head, it’s unintelligent to think you’re going to get much done on that task.
i’m categorizing tasks into two primary categories for better performance because of this, i invite you to try it as well. i’ve seen a huge rise in productivity the last month with this distinction visible in my calendar and task scheduling methods.
scribbling or recording a simple % after my tasks now, i quickly rate how much brain power they take, which helps shift mindset when seeing what’s next. it places a, “should i do this now” in my mind before i act.
there are those tasks that need all of your attention, they need your “A game”, or your “game face”, or for you to be “in the zone” … or “on” … or whatever gets you jazzed and those that need you to just give them attention, shuffle information, or get something started. move item A to an new location, or simply respond. tasks that need 90%+ of your focus and tasks that need 15-50%.
i’ve been hitting walls attempting tasks when i can’t give my full attention that require it, without realizing that it doesn’t work. it’s not fun, in fact it’s horribly frustrating.
i’ve come across this mostly while working positions that require me to be “on call”, or monitoring something. (in IT this is very often). the consistent breaks in focus don’t allow me to zero in on tasks that require it, so the actions take forever, seem disjointed, or occur like something is wrong or more difficult than it should be. can you relate?
maybe you work a 9-5 where you’re always hiding a few browser windows, or happen to be a social butterfly and can’t resist responding to those social media prompts. maybe you work a physical job and your on call to be brought in on a job. can’t relax or get something important done? i know the feeling.
alternatively, if you generally have no where to be, or no scheduled responsibilities throughout the day, you probably don’t have this problem. freedom has it’s own focus challenges.
identify yourself in a few of the tasks below.
examples of things you can’t do without 90%+ focus
- write content
- analyzing large scale projects
- graphic design, or graphic manipulation
- write code
- reading
- figuring out where to start a project
- phone calls
- video chats
- building a framework of somesort
- brainstorming
examples of things you can do with 50% focus
- respond to short e-mails
- calendar scheduling
- file management
- reading headlines to bookmark for reading later
- idea recording
- watch tv (non educational)
- text based chat
- research, web searches
- twitter, facebook, social media
- walk around the house eating things and cleaning up
quick, which do you do more of out of the two lists above?
i bet you do more of the second one. we neglect the things that require all our attention, yet those are the tasks that propel us forward the most, that make a real difference or produce milestones. it’s not all on us though, our society today favors bite sized everything. awareness will help you combat it.
why this sucks for most people
because you only have the time between your normal working hours and sleep to give 100% of your focus to something. and often times, just claiming that focus is a challenge after work.
how you can beat it
- schedule intelligently
- separate tasks by focus required, think before you act
- practice getting in the zone quickly (music, wine, a quite room) study what works for you and amplify these things.
for me, it’s often a new location, some stimulant, and music without any vocals.
- choose an exclusive location for only %100 focus tasks.
- pay/barter people to take care of all the little things (outsource)
- realize slow progress isn’t bad, as long as it’s consistent.
hope you warriors out there find encouragement, keep on hustling!
photo by ~eecomics