In last month’s article on improving personal productivity, we looked at several habits that would enable you to make better use of your time and increase your company’s or department’s productivity. This month’s article will continue with that theme and show other good time management habits.
- Don’t Multitask: It simply doesn’t work! Multi-tasking wastes time and causes errors. Most people who regularly indulge in multi-tasking are only trying to look as if they are “on top of it”, or can’t control their own time. A Stanford University study found that people who have a strong tendency to multi-task and feel that it helps their performance were actually worse performers than those people who like to do a single thing at a time. Frequent multi-taskers performed more poorly because they had more trouble organizing their thoughts and filtering out irrelevant information. In addition, multi-tasking caused them to be slower in switching from one task to another. This led to delays in completing work and a higher rate of errors. I can prove that multi-tasking doesn’t work with a simple game that we use at meetings or conferences.
- Go off the Grid: Isolate yourself for periods of time to focus on important tasks. Set aside time each day or week to work undistracted. Make sure fellow workers understand that a closed door means you must not be disturbed. This isolation time can also be commuting time or jogging time. They can’t bother you if they can’t contact you!
- Delegate: Give some tasks to subordinates and monitor their progress. Delegation is one of the most mis-used tasks in the management world. There is a technique to it that can be a topic for another entire article!
- Create To-Do lists; lists will help to keep you from getting distracted by other workers who seek to exert subtle control over you; or want you to work on their schedule, not yours. This habit goes hand-in-hand with the habit of setting goals for yourself.
- Tackle your most challenging tasks before lunch; some people call this the “live frog theory”. If you address the challenging tasks in the morning when you are fresh, you have a better change of completing them quickly and correctly.
- Follow 80/20 rule; I wrote an article (it’s on the Cogent Management Resources web site blog) about Pareto’s Principle. This rule states that a large number of outcomes are actually caused by a small number of causes. For example a large number of production delays are caused by a small number of specific causes. Address the 20% of the problems that cause 80% of the delays. Eliminate, or reduce, those tasks or interruptions that have little effect on your performance.
As you read these suggestions, think about how you can use some of them to reduce distractions and increase productivity. If you have other good habits that you have found beneficial, let me know. Contact me at jptate@cogentmr.com
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