Time Management – Two Important Things I Learned this Last Week – Part II

Okay, in my last blog post I asked the following two questions:

1. How many minutes do employees devote to a project before getting distracted?
2. It takes workers how many minutes to get back to the original task after a distraction?

The answers are:

1. 11 minutes
2. 25 minutes

2004 study conducted by Gloria Mark and Victor Gonzalez from the University of California, Irvine

Wow, I couldn’t believe what I was reading. Was I really that bad? The answer, a lot of times I am! So what could I do about it?

Recently I read the book “The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich" by Timothy Ferriss. I was able to apply a couple of things from this book that have helped me tremendously.

I started asking myself one question at the end of each day. If I had a heart attack and could only work two hours a day due to doctor’s orders, what would I focus those two hours on? This is an amazing question to ask. Many times we don’t focus on the most important things because they are some times the most difficult things, or the things we want to do the least. I also set calendar reminders in Outlook that would pop up ever few hours and ask the question “Are you working on the most important thing right now?”

Okay, I know it’s simple, but it really worked for me. We think we are busy, but the reality is we spend a lot of time trying to convince others that we are busy by doing things that yield very little fruit, or yield fruit that nobody really cares for. And usually people who always tell other people they are busy are the biggest violators of spending a lot of fruitless time! Think about it.

The second thing I decided to do was to only check my e-mail twice a day in the spirit of staying on task. Once at 11:00 AM and then at 4:00 PM. Believe me, this was harder then focusing on what was most important. It felt well… almost impossible. I had to keep my BlackBerry in the other room and then completely shut down the e-mail on my computer.  I found myself having hand to mouse spasms every few minutes as my brain said to the hand, “check your e-mail there might be something important in there.” But I got through the day and an amazing thing happened, I got the most important things done with time to spare. And I felt really good about it. Try it, it really works.

Now, these were just two things I did. The problem with time management books is they require you to do hundreds of them all at once. But, if everything is important, then nothing will be. However, there is no time management book that would ever say that because then they couldn’t write a book, right? In this case, two simple things really changed the way I approach my work because they were simple and applicable.

What two or three things have you learned that changed the way you do work?

FYI, I just read a great article that compliments what I have written above on the Harvard Business Publishing Blog at http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/cs/2009/09/to_multitask_effectively_focus.html

 

Mike Rogers

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Comments

[Robert]

Great post. I found this book about 70 or so days ago and it's rocked my life. I literally just wrote a post on thelifedesignproject detailing some of the nitty gritty changes that have really come about from following the advice in the 4HWW. I'll say this, it isn't easy!

I really resonate with your comment and coming from the standpoint of "what if I had a heart attack" ... I have a big huge piece of paper in my office with the words "if you could only do two things today, what would they be?" ... it's so big it can't be ignored and amongst other things...it's really impacted what I get done in a day. good article! thanks for the post. hope to hear from you

[Mike Rogers]

Thanks for your reply Robert. I feel the same way. It is a great book. It's simple, but very powerful.

- Mike

[Gwyn Nichols]

I hear you! Being a writer and editor, I cherish blocks of uninterrupted time, and my clients are counting on me for that.

Recently I was having trouble ignoring my e-mail; it was the day my missionary son would e-mail at some point, and the client I was working for was sending additional information and questions. I even had my e-mail set to check every minute instead of less frequently as I usually do.

So I starting wishing that e-mail worked like phones where we can set up distinctive rings. And guess what! It does exist! At least on my Mac it does. So that day I set one sound for the client I wanted to stay in contact with, another sound for my son, and everyone else was muted.

Not only did I concentrate when I didn't hear the other 100 e-mails, I was just getting up for lunch when my son chimed in. Without the distinctive tone, I would have missed the moment I enjoyed with him.

[Mike Rogers]

Interesting comments Gwyn. I will need to check into the sound thing for e-mail coming in (I on a PC). That would be very helpful.

I have a missionary son as well who usually writes on Fridays and I find myself not sticking to my time management rules very well on those days : ) He is in the missionary training center right now and then on his way to Belgium and France Monday.

- Mike

[Jean Kelley]

This is a brilliant article. Many good ideas here. I especially liked the "alert" method. And now --- I'm having hand to mouse spasms just thinking about looking at my e-mail only twice a day. The author is on to something good here.

Jean Kelley
Leadership Consultant