Interruptions, A Productivity Killer

On a typical day, you can expect to get caught in the crossfire of interruptions, the unexpected will bubble up, and demands will fall out of the sky at inconvenient times.  Flexicuting will be required.

Yes, we invented the word flexicuting because we can’t think of a better way to describe this skill.  Events are so fluid in today’s work environment that we have to change, adapt, and shift our focus all day long.

Flexicuting involves the ability to:

• Be as willing to leave your activity list when priorities shift as you are willing to stick with it.
• Be able to turn on a dime in the middle of the day when an opportunity presents itself.
• Develop the habit of reserving some time every day to deal with the expected/unexpected.
• Be wired 24/7 without letting it be a source of distractions and frustration.

Would you like to become better at flexicuting?  Here’s how! Recognize it’s a survival skill by changing your mindset and practice the forgoing flexicuting skills daily. It can be quite fun.

Flexicuting involves the skill of both multi-tasking activities and alternate-tasking activities. It also requires the wisdom to know when to use and when to avoid either of these approaches.

We’ll talk about multi-tasking first. In our society, the term multi-tasking is overused. Even worse, the skill has been elevated to the pinnacle of desirable abilities and we often find ourselves abused—and sometimes abusing—in the execution of multi-tasking because there are some guidelines to multi-tasking that most people aren’t aware of.

The best advice we can give people is to BEWARE OF MULTI-TASKING! Here’s why. When you are executing multiple activities at the same time, none of these activities has your complete focus. If you must multi-task, it should be done only when you combine simple, mindless tasks such as opening your mail and watching the news.

TIP: Never, never, never multi-task while carrying on a conversation with another person.

Multi-tasking, when abused, leads to time contamination. An example of time contamination would be taking your child out for pizza so you can have some quality one-on-one time together, and then taking a cell phone call for fifteen minutes while your child stares into space. Time contamination is also working on your laptop while supposedly watching your child’s soccer game.

Alternate-tasking is the natural result of being wired 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year (24/7/365). Living under these conditions, it makes sense to alternate our work and personal life activities in a way that we can fully experience both. While multi-tasking can contaminate time, alternate-tasking does not.

Alternate-tasking is being 100% where you are. Be 100% in the pizza shop with your child and then place the call after the pizza outing. Alternate-tasking permits us to fully engage all activities without dilution or contamination of the experience.

Alternate-tasking can help you get more done in less time than multi-tasking because, when you are fully engaged, you are more efficient and productive.

TIP: Alternate-tasking requires FOCUS. Begin with tasks that you can get done in 15 minutes or less until and free yourself from interruptions by shutting your door, closing out email, and don’t take calls etc.

Ruts, routines, rituals, and your time

Ruts are bad time management habits that should be eliminated.  An example is preoccupation.  Get out as fast as you can!

Routines are activities that need to be repeated on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.  Systemize these by determining the best times, places and methods for getting them done, then do them the same way every time.  If you do, you’ll be more efficient.

Rituals are personal techniques for putting yourself in the best state for accomplishing the tasks you are facing.  An example is driving negative head talk out of your mind with positive affirmations.  For example, “My presentation is going to go extremely well,” repeated over and over again.

Analyze your ruts, routines and rituals.  Get out of the ruts, streamline your routines, and create some rituals.  The use of your time will be much more effective.

Where Your Time Goes, There Are Your True Priorities.

Time flows toward what people feel is important, not what they say is important.  It’s an uncomfortable reality to recognize that what we do with our time validates what we want from our time.

When we say something or someone is important, but it isn’t matched with proportional time, the message is clear.  When we say something is not important, but it’s getting a lot of our time, the message is also clear.  We show the world everyday what is truly important to us by what activities we choose to do.

We can re-direct the course of our day at any point by re-focusing on our most important activities.

Integrate, don’t contaminate, work-life activities

Work-life integration is the alternate execution of work and personal life activities in a manner that permits us to fully experience the quality of both.

Work-life contamination is the simultaneous execution of work and personal life activities in a manner that prevents us from fully experiencing the quality of either. This is commonly referred to as multi-tasking.

An example is: opening your mail while carrying on an important business conversation with somebody in your office. Not only is it impolite, you might miss something very important.

Resolve to integrate, not contaminate! Your life will be richer and fuller.

Learn more tips at http://www.attackyourday.com

The Three Stages Of Interruptions

It has been traditional in the time management business to say it takes three times as long to recover from an interruption as it takes to experience it. This is due in large part to the three stages of responding.

First, there is wind down time, which drops the effectiveness level on which you were working. Then there is resolution time, which is the time devoted to dealing with the interruption. Next, there is wind up time, the time necessary to get you back up to the level on which you were working.

The clock keeps ticking throughout these three stages, and more time is consumed than most people realize.

7 tips to manage our phone calls more effectively.

1. I don’t know about you, but when somebody calls me and they want to give me information, then they put me on hold while they try and go find it, it’s a bit discourteous in my mind.  I tend to call them time robbers.  Have all the information at your finger tips prior to making the call.
2. Establish relevancy quickly. Relevancy means paying attention to the matter at hand.
3. Put a time limit on the front of your call. So if you were to call me I would say, “John, I am glad you called, I have about 3 minutes.  Could we wrap it up in that amount of time, or maybe I could call you back?
4. It’s a good idea to have clock or a watch by the telephone so that you are aware of how much time is actually ticking away during each call.
5. Screen your calls whenever possible, of course in a polite way.
6. Keep a talk file. If I communicate with you on an ongoing basis I keep a little paper file, or memo file electronically about things I want to talk to you about. Rather than call you every time something comes to mind, I just put it in the file and then when we finally do talk I might have six or eight items that I want to review with you and I have only made one call rather than six calls.
7. Very often we are called but nobody tells us the best time to call them back.  They give us the telephone number so fast that we have to keep playing the message over and over to get it down. I’m sure that’s happened to you many times. So when you wrap up the call give “precise” detailed information and restate your phone number twice.

Take the next few minutes and think about your biggest telephone challenges and write a statement in your Day-Timer how you will change that habit starting today.  We form habits by daily repetition, so practice this daily.

More time saving tips

Save Time, Use The Six Thinking Hats

I just finished reading the book “Six Thinking Hats” authored by Edward De Bono.  I suggest that if you have communication challenges in meetings, with coworkers, and even in your personal relationships the six thinking hats will save you time.  Effective communication not only leeds to higher productivity but can eliminate unnecessary stress.

Now, it’s no secret that meetings can be a big  time waster.  In all my years of consulting, I don’t think I ever had anyone tell me that their company meetings that are productive, effective, and thought provoking.  It’s primarily because human beings face major challenges.  The first obstacle is their ego. A desire to be right, to get their way, to show how smart they are instead of seeking the most logical solution.  The other major challenge is emotion.  When we are emotionally attached to an idea or concept it can cloud our judgement.

The purpose of the six thinking hats method is to  simplify your thinking approach.  First, focus on one thing at a time instead of juggling emotions, facts, and figures together. This is the organizational component.  The second is to channel your energy on one activity  at a time.  This creates harmony, increases productivity, and will produce results every time.  This method saves individuals and corporations time.

Make better decisions by using six thinking hats.  Each hat symbolizes a different way of processing information. These imaginary hats allow you to shift easily from one mode of to another.

• The White Hat: Symbolizes neutrality and discusses just the facts and figures only.
• The Red Hat: Allows you to express feelings and emotion without having to justify them.
• The Black Hat: Caution. Focus on looking for possible dangers or any obstacles.
• The Yellow Hat: Optimism. Look for the positive and possibilities in the project or situation.
• The Green Hat: Tap into your creativity and use this hat to brainstorm all creative ideas with out negative influence.
• The Blue Hat: Keep the structure together, be calm, cool and collective.

Use the six Thinking Hats method in all group endeavors to save time and to get results. Start with the blue hat to set the ground rules and to identify the desired outcome of the meeting.  Then, use each hat in no particular order but be sure to have a time limit set for each hat. This will help you guide your team toward better decisions and will drastically cut meeting time.  Focus on the common goal, after all you are on the same team.

Schedule A Race Against Time

So you find yourself slipping into preoccupation?  Does it take longer to do the work you have to do than it should?  Are you too slow getting started?  Is your energy low?

Schedule a race with time and you can temporarily fix all of the problems above.  It’s easy!  Simply decide on the task or tasks you want to get done.  Give yourself a start time and an ending time that will make you stretch, then get started on your race with the clock.  If anybody tries to interrupt you say, “Hey I’m timing this.”

Make activity management fun.  Make a game of it.  You’ll probably surprise yourself at how much you can accomplish in shorter time periods.  Why not schedule at least one race against time this week?

Noise Polluters Are The New Age Time Robbers

Noise polluters shout into their cell phones in restaurants, on commercial transportation and in open office environments.  Sometimes they even do this while sitting right next to somebody.  They set the ringers on their phones loud enough to serve as fire alarms, and their bizarre ring styles become further distractions.  They don’t seem to care at all for those around them.

Distractions interrupt others, intrude into their time space, and make it difficult to concentrate.  Promote a healthy time environment.  Eliminate cell phone noise pollution.  It is common courtesy.

Just In Time, Time Management

There is a huge population out there that postpones getting started on important projects.  Putting themselves under the gun creates pressure.  Pressure often unleashes our productivity and creative juices.  Tight deadlines jolt us into action!

People often apologize that they do this, but it does work for many.  I suggest it be used in moderation as a periodic technique.  Fight the urge to use it as a crutch every time.  Instead, do a little something on the project every day.  That way you’ll reduce stress, finish the project early, and get a rush of satisfaction.

I was meeting with a client yesterday, a project manager that has a strict twenty-four hour rule.  She said “the project has to be completed one day in advance in case there are any changes or technical problems.”  She had a deadline Tuesday on a grant proposal and there was a problem!  A server when down.  Fortunately for her she had twenty-four hours and she made the deadline.

Remember!  The closer to the deadline, the more difficult it is to recover should something go wrong.