.
Many people believe that if they could only initiate tasks they’ve been delaying at the “right time,” the tasks would be easier to begin and complete. For most tasks, there is no objective “perfect” time. I know of people who always wait until the top of the hour to start something, others who wait for a certain day of the week, and yet others who wait for a certain type of whether pattern! This is a self-deluding mind game. As much as you’d like to believe it does, the cycle of the moon does not determine when you should start your work. Give it up.
While there are work-related tasks for which starting at one time is preferred over starting at another, many of the tasks you face in the workplace could be tackled at this time or that with little repercussion. If you fill out your report log at 8:42 rather than 9 A.M. when it’s not due until the afternoon, does it make any difference to anybody?
Do you believe that the IRS cares whether you initiated your taxes and ultimately filed them on February 27 at 10:36 in the morning or at 11:08? If you remove the clothes from the dryer before the news or after the news, are there any notable ramifications worth citing so long as no one is waiting for clean, dry underwear?
If you find yourself waiting for the perfect chance to begin a task, you’re wasting precious time. You are a work in progress, and you can change. Let go of perfectionism. The project you’ve been delaying may not turn out perfectly. Follow through on your plan anyway.
For most of the tasks you face right now that you have delayed starting, the hard-core reality is that there is no perfect time to begin. In many cases, the “perfect” start is simply another in a long line of tricks that your mind plays to make it seem as if there are legitimate reasons for not getting started.
Once you acknowledge that most tasks have no perfect start time, you may recognize that the best time to begin could well be right now! If you find yourself caught in the bind of waiting for a perfect time, such as when the whether changes or when you feel more like doing it, consider that for virtually all indoor tasks, the whether is arbitrary. As for waiting for when you feel like it – “feeling like it” is a state of mind that is under more of your control than you might suppose. When will you ever actually feel like cleaning out the hamster cage? The longer you wait, the dirtier it gets, whether you feel like it or not.
When people receive a check or a complimentary letter in the mail, they often regard that as a good day. Suppose the check or the letter came the day before or doesn’t come until the next day? Determining that one day is better than another because of some external event is part of human nature. Yet, whatever you did to earn the sum or merit the letter was put in motion before the day you received it.
So too, it is erroneous to believe that there is a perfect time to start on tasks. The mental energy you need to put toward a task may already be working for you, long before the time you think is perfect for beginning. Often, the first moment you can start a task is as good a time as any.
When you talk to people who finally finish a project that they have been putting off, all the mental claptrap about the “perfect time” to start falls away. The act of getting started often makes tat moment a perfect time. So, like a “good day,” the concept of a “perfect time” is illusory. When you are able to engender positive feelings – when you get that warm tingling feeling all over – it is a good day. When you are able to begin an important tasks you have been putting off, it is a perfect time.
Regards,
Timben
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Disconnect Yourself
.
Sometimes it makes sense to simply hole up somewhere so you can give your full attention to your task. When you have resolved that any disturbances in completing your task will not be tolerated, condition your environment for no distractions. Instead of going in to work, maybe you can work at home one day. You could barricade yourself in a room and post warning signs, take the far cubbyhole on the top floor, or find any remote location where you avoid distracting influences. Oh, wait, considering where you live, maybe you need to go to a hotel and book a room.
You want to move yourself totally away from others so that you have the opportunity to give your full attention to that which you want to accomplish. Often, you can accomplish in hours what otherwise might require a week because you’re that good when you’re not distracted!
Question: It sounds like a luxury to be able to allocate a block of time just like that. How many people can actually do this?
Answer: Nearly everyone has some discretion over how he or she will complete a task. If you have to leave your workplace for what you need to complete the job at hand, most bosses understand. After all, they’re not paying you to procrastinate.
In advance, identify those places where you will be able to work steadily:
* A conference room
* A coworker’s office
* A park bench
* The attic or basement
* A library
* A cabin at the lake
* The back porch
* A hotel room
* The car, while parked
* A picnic table
* An airport check-in line
* The children’s tree house
You’ll know when you’ve found the right spot. You’ll feel good, productive, and unhurried.
Once you’ve found your location, you still may face the challenge of maintaining concentration. Someone once told me, “I’ll get into a project, and I’ll remember that I need to be doing something else.” That’s procrastination phenomenon in full bloom: when you’re tackling something that is difficult for you to tackle, undoubtedly you’ll think of other things you have to do.
You task is to stay with what you choose to do at that time and let all the rest to go. That almost sounds a little callous – to let all the rest go for the moment. Once you’ve gotten onto that big project that you’ve been putting off time after time – let’s face it, you’ve let a lot of things go from time to time – you’ll realize that being isolated helps!
Come on now, what better use of your time is there than to complete what it is you’ve chosen to complete?
Regards,
Timben
Sometimes it makes sense to simply hole up somewhere so you can give your full attention to your task. When you have resolved that any disturbances in completing your task will not be tolerated, condition your environment for no distractions. Instead of going in to work, maybe you can work at home one day. You could barricade yourself in a room and post warning signs, take the far cubbyhole on the top floor, or find any remote location where you avoid distracting influences. Oh, wait, considering where you live, maybe you need to go to a hotel and book a room.
You want to move yourself totally away from others so that you have the opportunity to give your full attention to that which you want to accomplish. Often, you can accomplish in hours what otherwise might require a week because you’re that good when you’re not distracted!
Question: It sounds like a luxury to be able to allocate a block of time just like that. How many people can actually do this?
Answer: Nearly everyone has some discretion over how he or she will complete a task. If you have to leave your workplace for what you need to complete the job at hand, most bosses understand. After all, they’re not paying you to procrastinate.
In advance, identify those places where you will be able to work steadily:
* A conference room
* A coworker’s office
* A park bench
* The attic or basement
* A library
* A cabin at the lake
* The back porch
* A hotel room
* The car, while parked
* A picnic table
* An airport check-in line
* The children’s tree house
You’ll know when you’ve found the right spot. You’ll feel good, productive, and unhurried.
Once you’ve found your location, you still may face the challenge of maintaining concentration. Someone once told me, “I’ll get into a project, and I’ll remember that I need to be doing something else.” That’s procrastination phenomenon in full bloom: when you’re tackling something that is difficult for you to tackle, undoubtedly you’ll think of other things you have to do.
You task is to stay with what you choose to do at that time and let all the rest to go. That almost sounds a little callous – to let all the rest go for the moment. Once you’ve gotten onto that big project that you’ve been putting off time after time – let’s face it, you’ve let a lot of things go from time to time – you’ll realize that being isolated helps!
Come on now, what better use of your time is there than to complete what it is you’ve chosen to complete?
Regards,
Timben
Decimate Distractions
.
Suppose you’re working with your computer and the monitor starts fading. It flickers back on, then conks out for good. Bingo, your tension level rockets upward because this event is frustrating. You had a decent notion of what you wanted to finish that morning. Waiting around for your office’s tech support staff wasn’t included on your list. Office distractions and interruptions, in a word, suck!
When you find yourself in an environment (or for that matter, a whole society) that subjects you to all manner of distractions and interruptions, even the smallest of tasks can loom larger. Sometimes the reason that you procrastinate on a project is that you anticipate interruption. To eliminate this possibility, eliminate distraction. It’s like Terminix without the bugs.
To concentrate, you may have to escape from everyday events. For example, hold your calls, don’t accept visitors, and forgo constantly checking e-mail. These distractions could be a reason for your procrastination, so eliminate them and give yourself some uninterrupted time. Yes, that means no Facebook or MySpace. If you’re constantly tempted to surf the Web, check your e-mail, or play Spider Solitaire when you should be working, you might benefit from a program like Temptation Blocker, at http://sourceforge.net/projects/temptblocker , which enables you to “lock yourself out of specific applications” for the amount of time that you specify.
If you think the task will take an hour, make sure that you don’t have distractions for at least ninety minutes. If you finish sometime between thirty and ninety minutes later, you can always re-enter “the world” as you choose. Occasionally, it makes sense to simply go to a private place, such as a soundproof room or bank vault, so that you can give your full attention to a particular task.
Combating Distractions and Interruptions
Not surprisingly – to me, anyway – the single most challenging workplace stressor is interruption. From a list of more than fifteen stressors at work cited by managers, including work load, organizational politics, disciplining someone, dealing with upper management, balancing work and personal life, working within budgets, conducting performance reviews, and interruptions, you guessed it… interruptions was number one!
Years back, a study conducted by Industrial Engineer magazine found that the typical interruption sustained by managers lasted between six and nine minutes… bad but not crushing. Now hear this: The average time managers needed to “recover” from interruptions last an additional three to twenty-three minutes! Even if your math SATs weren’t that great, you can quickly surmise that even a mere handful of distractions and interruptions per hour can flatten your productivity like a pancake. It is any wonder that most career professional consider interruptions to be the most stressful aspect of their jobs? Now throw 120 people into one large room separated by flimsy cubicles and I think you see where office productivity is headed.
Never mind the old adage, “It’s so noisy, I can’t hear myself think.” Today, in some environments it’s so noisy, you can’t hear yourself speak!
A consultant consulted for a manager who supervised six employees. He sought to accomplish more on the job, but with each of his staffers coming to him with questions every couple of hours, he was at his wit’s end. If each employee asked a question every two hours, in total the manager was asked an average of four questions each day, per person.
With six employees, that meant he fielded twenty-four questions a day, or 120 interruptions per week. This resulted in disruptions of the manager’s work three times each hour in a forty-hour week! Now add in how long it took to “recover” from each interruption and, potentially, his whole day was consumed by distraction!
Not fun.
Consultant suggested a system to help him cope with the interruptions and to gain control of his time. Consultant called it the J-4 System. (The “J” was for “Jeff”. You can use your own initial.) Consultant requested that the manager allocate the questions he received into four categories:
1. The answer to the first type of distraction, a J-1 type distraction, was already in print and did not need a personal reply from the supervisor (it was in the company policy manual or someplace similar). The manager could tell his staff people, “Please don’t concern me with these kinds of distractions (J-1); go ahead and review materials you already have to find the answer.”
2. A J-2 type distraction represented a question that peer of bookkeeper could answer; the manager did not need to handle the question and could either quickly refer the employee to another person or ask that certain questions be taken directly to someone else.
3. J-3 type distractions required only a straightforward yes or no answer. These questions required interaction with the supervisor, but not much – a quick phone call, buzz on the intercom, or beep on a pager.
4. Last came the J-4 type distraction. It represented a question that required the manager’s input – one that he needed or wanted to, answer. “Yes, send it my way.” “I’ll handle it.” “You bet I’m concerned.”
In the course of a week, how many questions might be of the J-4 level of importance? Assume that each person asked two J-4 questions per day for a total of sixty interruptions each week.
Regards,
Timben
Suppose you’re working with your computer and the monitor starts fading. It flickers back on, then conks out for good. Bingo, your tension level rockets upward because this event is frustrating. You had a decent notion of what you wanted to finish that morning. Waiting around for your office’s tech support staff wasn’t included on your list. Office distractions and interruptions, in a word, suck!
When you find yourself in an environment (or for that matter, a whole society) that subjects you to all manner of distractions and interruptions, even the smallest of tasks can loom larger. Sometimes the reason that you procrastinate on a project is that you anticipate interruption. To eliminate this possibility, eliminate distraction. It’s like Terminix without the bugs.
To concentrate, you may have to escape from everyday events. For example, hold your calls, don’t accept visitors, and forgo constantly checking e-mail. These distractions could be a reason for your procrastination, so eliminate them and give yourself some uninterrupted time. Yes, that means no Facebook or MySpace. If you’re constantly tempted to surf the Web, check your e-mail, or play Spider Solitaire when you should be working, you might benefit from a program like Temptation Blocker, at http://sourceforge.net/projects/temptblocker , which enables you to “lock yourself out of specific applications” for the amount of time that you specify.
If you think the task will take an hour, make sure that you don’t have distractions for at least ninety minutes. If you finish sometime between thirty and ninety minutes later, you can always re-enter “the world” as you choose. Occasionally, it makes sense to simply go to a private place, such as a soundproof room or bank vault, so that you can give your full attention to a particular task.
Combating Distractions and Interruptions
Not surprisingly – to me, anyway – the single most challenging workplace stressor is interruption. From a list of more than fifteen stressors at work cited by managers, including work load, organizational politics, disciplining someone, dealing with upper management, balancing work and personal life, working within budgets, conducting performance reviews, and interruptions, you guessed it… interruptions was number one!
Years back, a study conducted by Industrial Engineer magazine found that the typical interruption sustained by managers lasted between six and nine minutes… bad but not crushing. Now hear this: The average time managers needed to “recover” from interruptions last an additional three to twenty-three minutes! Even if your math SATs weren’t that great, you can quickly surmise that even a mere handful of distractions and interruptions per hour can flatten your productivity like a pancake. It is any wonder that most career professional consider interruptions to be the most stressful aspect of their jobs? Now throw 120 people into one large room separated by flimsy cubicles and I think you see where office productivity is headed.
Never mind the old adage, “It’s so noisy, I can’t hear myself think.” Today, in some environments it’s so noisy, you can’t hear yourself speak!
A consultant consulted for a manager who supervised six employees. He sought to accomplish more on the job, but with each of his staffers coming to him with questions every couple of hours, he was at his wit’s end. If each employee asked a question every two hours, in total the manager was asked an average of four questions each day, per person.
With six employees, that meant he fielded twenty-four questions a day, or 120 interruptions per week. This resulted in disruptions of the manager’s work three times each hour in a forty-hour week! Now add in how long it took to “recover” from each interruption and, potentially, his whole day was consumed by distraction!
Not fun.
Consultant suggested a system to help him cope with the interruptions and to gain control of his time. Consultant called it the J-4 System. (The “J” was for “Jeff”. You can use your own initial.) Consultant requested that the manager allocate the questions he received into four categories:
1. The answer to the first type of distraction, a J-1 type distraction, was already in print and did not need a personal reply from the supervisor (it was in the company policy manual or someplace similar). The manager could tell his staff people, “Please don’t concern me with these kinds of distractions (J-1); go ahead and review materials you already have to find the answer.”
2. A J-2 type distraction represented a question that peer of bookkeeper could answer; the manager did not need to handle the question and could either quickly refer the employee to another person or ask that certain questions be taken directly to someone else.
3. J-3 type distractions required only a straightforward yes or no answer. These questions required interaction with the supervisor, but not much – a quick phone call, buzz on the intercom, or beep on a pager.
4. Last came the J-4 type distraction. It represented a question that required the manager’s input – one that he needed or wanted to, answer. “Yes, send it my way.” “I’ll handle it.” “You bet I’m concerned.”
In the course of a week, how many questions might be of the J-4 level of importance? Assume that each person asked two J-4 questions per day for a total of sixty interruptions each week.
Regards,
Timben
Live “in the Zone”
.
Being “in the zone” is wonderful. You know about the zone – not the diet, but the place and space where you do your best work. Where you’re in your groove. Where your work is exemplary. Where computer solitaire or FreeCell has little chance to derail you.
Regardless of what you call it, would it be useful for you to know how to get into the zone on a more consistent basis? You bet it would! Here’s a simple exercise you can undertake to help create that environment in which you can work at your best.
Recall a time when you were highly productive:
• Where were you?
• What time of day was it?
• Was anyone else around?
• What was the lighting?
• What was the temperature?
• What resources were available?
Think about what you did at that time:
• What were you wearing?
• What did you consume the night before?
• How long did you sleep the night before?
• With whom did you sleep the night before?
• How did you feel?
• What was your level of fitness?
• What did you eat that morning?
Consider the time of day and week
• What time of day was it?
• What day of the week was it?
• What had transpired earlier?
• What was forthcoming?
Think about the tools available:
• Were you using a computer or PDA?
• Were you using other equipment?
• Did you have a pen or pencil?
• Did you have a blank pad?
• Were you online?
• Were other resources available?
• Were periodicals, books or directories present?
Assess other factors that were present:
• Did you have a view? (a room with a view!)
• Were you in a comfortable chair?
• Were you at a desk or at a table?
• Were you in a moving vehicle, such as a plane or a train?
• Was there quiet, or soothing, background noise?
• What were the colors of the walls surrounding you?
• Were you in a room with rugs?
• Could you hear others?
• Was water nearby?
• Were you near the coffee machine?
• Was the coffee decent?
Circle each item in the previous list that was present or was a factor when you
were in the zone. Undoubtedly, insights will emerge. Next, recall another similar experience and read through each of the questions again. Which items now been circled twice?
If you can recall a third or fourth time in which you were highly productive, and run through the questions again, a strong pattern may emerge. You’ll know which factors were present at those times you seemed to be highly productive. When they’re stuck getting started on some task, self-starters emulate their zone scenarios to increase the probability of achieving great results.
Regards,
Timben
Being “in the zone” is wonderful. You know about the zone – not the diet, but the place and space where you do your best work. Where you’re in your groove. Where your work is exemplary. Where computer solitaire or FreeCell has little chance to derail you.
Regardless of what you call it, would it be useful for you to know how to get into the zone on a more consistent basis? You bet it would! Here’s a simple exercise you can undertake to help create that environment in which you can work at your best.
Recall a time when you were highly productive:
• Where were you?
• What time of day was it?
• Was anyone else around?
• What was the lighting?
• What was the temperature?
• What resources were available?
Think about what you did at that time:
• What were you wearing?
• What did you consume the night before?
• How long did you sleep the night before?
• With whom did you sleep the night before?
• How did you feel?
• What was your level of fitness?
• What did you eat that morning?
Consider the time of day and week
• What time of day was it?
• What day of the week was it?
• What had transpired earlier?
• What was forthcoming?
Think about the tools available:
• Were you using a computer or PDA?
• Were you using other equipment?
• Did you have a pen or pencil?
• Did you have a blank pad?
• Were you online?
• Were other resources available?
• Were periodicals, books or directories present?
Assess other factors that were present:
• Did you have a view? (a room with a view!)
• Were you in a comfortable chair?
• Were you at a desk or at a table?
• Were you in a moving vehicle, such as a plane or a train?
• Was there quiet, or soothing, background noise?
• What were the colors of the walls surrounding you?
• Were you in a room with rugs?
• Could you hear others?
• Was water nearby?
• Were you near the coffee machine?
• Was the coffee decent?
Circle each item in the previous list that was present or was a factor when you
were in the zone. Undoubtedly, insights will emerge. Next, recall another similar experience and read through each of the questions again. Which items now been circled twice?
If you can recall a third or fourth time in which you were highly productive, and run through the questions again, a strong pattern may emerge. You’ll know which factors were present at those times you seemed to be highly productive. When they’re stuck getting started on some task, self-starters emulate their zone scenarios to increase the probability of achieving great results.
Regards,
Timben
Get Your Ducks in a Row
.
It is reasonable to schedule time to take care of life’s administrative tasks, such as handling correspondence, paying bills, straightening up, and keeping things in order. These activities can be as important as anything else in helping you attain your optimal performance level. They can prepare you to best tackle critical tasks and projects. Heck, the grounds crews take time to mow the grass and line the fields before every baseball game, so there has to be some sense in tidying up!
Some people find it advantageous to set aside a whole day solely for taking care of “administrivia.” Thereafter, they have uninterrupted days of highly productive activity. For a specific task, when you know that there are going to be bottlenecks, you have a tendency not to get started. If you marshal your resources and take care of contingencies, you have a far greater chance of starting and staying with the project from the outset. Often it makes sense to handle minor tasks before tackling something larger.
If you know you’re going to need support somewhere down the line, ensure at the outset that it will be forthcoming. This will help you to get started on projects that you otherwise may find yourself lingering over.
You intend to come into the office Saturday (yeah, right) to reorganize your now messy filing system. So, during the week, as you pass by retail stores, or the company supply closet, you accumulate file folders, hanging folders, identification tags, and a waste bin for documents you no longer need. This way, when Saturday arrives, you have no excuse!
By assembling these items in advance – lining up your ducks – you all but ensure that you’ll proceed at a productive pace on Saturday when you tackle the job you have been planning. If you buy too many garbage bags, bring too many folders, don’t worry. You will use them eventually. Garbage happens. And you’ll likely need even more in the near future. You are not likely to use all the glass cleaner either, but it will certainly come in handy for other windows at other times. As far as the bug spray, hopefully you won’t need that again.
To not line up your ducks before starting a big project would ensure inefficiency, excessive downtime, and (need I say it?) further procrastination!
Lining up your ducks doesn’t always equate to buying things. It may be as simple as assembling items that you already have at your disposal, such as that all – important duct tape. For work-related projects, lining up your ducks might entail identifying key resources in advance, such as phone numbers of contact people, URLs of vital Web sites, or a list of usernames and passwords.
Lining up your ducks complements plotting a course. Simply jotting down the items or resources that you might need in advance of tackling the project represents prudent time management, is comforting, and, in retrospect, almost always proves to be rewarding. Then, go have a life, at least for the rest of the day. It’s rumored that time off can be quite enjoyable.
If you’re in need of an effective scheduling system, these days there are software programs across the Web designed to help the organizationally challenged. The time management software for Windows, Achieve Planner, allows you to arrange tasks hierarchically and color-code your priorities. The distributors at www.effexis.com.achieve/planner.htm assert that this program will help increase your productivity. You can also identify others easily. The point is, find something that works for you and stick with it.
Regards,
Timben
It is reasonable to schedule time to take care of life’s administrative tasks, such as handling correspondence, paying bills, straightening up, and keeping things in order. These activities can be as important as anything else in helping you attain your optimal performance level. They can prepare you to best tackle critical tasks and projects. Heck, the grounds crews take time to mow the grass and line the fields before every baseball game, so there has to be some sense in tidying up!
Some people find it advantageous to set aside a whole day solely for taking care of “administrivia.” Thereafter, they have uninterrupted days of highly productive activity. For a specific task, when you know that there are going to be bottlenecks, you have a tendency not to get started. If you marshal your resources and take care of contingencies, you have a far greater chance of starting and staying with the project from the outset. Often it makes sense to handle minor tasks before tackling something larger.
If you know you’re going to need support somewhere down the line, ensure at the outset that it will be forthcoming. This will help you to get started on projects that you otherwise may find yourself lingering over.
You intend to come into the office Saturday (yeah, right) to reorganize your now messy filing system. So, during the week, as you pass by retail stores, or the company supply closet, you accumulate file folders, hanging folders, identification tags, and a waste bin for documents you no longer need. This way, when Saturday arrives, you have no excuse!
By assembling these items in advance – lining up your ducks – you all but ensure that you’ll proceed at a productive pace on Saturday when you tackle the job you have been planning. If you buy too many garbage bags, bring too many folders, don’t worry. You will use them eventually. Garbage happens. And you’ll likely need even more in the near future. You are not likely to use all the glass cleaner either, but it will certainly come in handy for other windows at other times. As far as the bug spray, hopefully you won’t need that again.
To not line up your ducks before starting a big project would ensure inefficiency, excessive downtime, and (need I say it?) further procrastination!
Lining up your ducks doesn’t always equate to buying things. It may be as simple as assembling items that you already have at your disposal, such as that all – important duct tape. For work-related projects, lining up your ducks might entail identifying key resources in advance, such as phone numbers of contact people, URLs of vital Web sites, or a list of usernames and passwords.
Lining up your ducks complements plotting a course. Simply jotting down the items or resources that you might need in advance of tackling the project represents prudent time management, is comforting, and, in retrospect, almost always proves to be rewarding. Then, go have a life, at least for the rest of the day. It’s rumored that time off can be quite enjoyable.
If you’re in need of an effective scheduling system, these days there are software programs across the Web designed to help the organizationally challenged. The time management software for Windows, Achieve Planner, allows you to arrange tasks hierarchically and color-code your priorities. The distributors at www.effexis.com.achieve/planner.htm assert that this program will help increase your productivity. You can also identify others easily. The point is, find something that works for you and stick with it.
Regards,
Timben
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
