The title says it all. For years, this was a staple in gauging how efficient, effective and productive was. How many things can you do at once? How much can you juggle? More = better.
And being the good little worker bee that I am, I tried to do my best against that metric. I tried to be working on as many things as I could at once. Outwardly, I felt like I got a lot done. But inside, I always felt like it was wrong. (probably just the stress involved)
But recently, I (and several other people) have crossed to the other side of the tracks. Multitasking sucks. You *aren’t* more efficient. You *don’t* get more stuff done. You just look really busy and it takes longer to get anything done.
In addition to a lot of other things I’ve done (I’d like to write about them, but it’s damn boring to anyone not as big of a nerd as I am), one of the things I’ve been doing for about 2 weeks has made a big improvement at the office and might benefit other people here. I turned off my email.
No, not totally. But at the office, I only check email twice a day—10 AM and 4 PM. Other than that, my email is shutdown. No notifications for new mail—nothing.
I’d been putting this off for a while. I’d heard people talk about it for a while, but I kept telling myself that it didn’t apply to me. But Tim Ferris finally pushed me over the edge after he kept writing about it.
Damn, it’s nice. I get a heck of a lot more done during the day with those fewer distractions. When I get to the office in the morning, I just start right back where I left off the day before.
I used to worry that I’d miss out on important things if I didn’t see/respond to every email quickly. But that hasn’t been the case so far. I’ve got IM and a phone, so if there’s an emergency, that’s how they are going to contact me.
Anyway, I figure that most people don’t care about crap like this, but it’s the things like this that reduce stress and make my life just a little easier.
Out.
4 comments:
I've found that ignoring everybody at work except for between 10:00 and 10:15 and 3:00 to 3:15 works great also.
Yeah, at some point you absolutely have to go "I have done my part, the rest will take care of itself" and walk out the door. Which has led to some interesting moments at my job, but that'sa story for another time. :)
Yeah, at some point you absolutely have to go "I have done my part, the rest will take care of itself" and walk out the door. Which has led to some interesting moments at my job, but that'sa story for another time. :)
What is this no email thing you speak of?
That is one of the perks of my job, I don't have work email. Can't really get on the internet unless its for work. I don't have to deal with that kind of stuff anymore. The important things where I work are answering the phone and face time.
We can't get personal calls at work and can't keep our cells phones on us. That means unless its an emergency it waits until we go to lunch or get off work.
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