by Mandy Green, Busy Coach
Happy start of the summer to all of you! With this being a crazy time of year with wrapping up the spring season, graduation, getting summer off to a good start, etc., I wanted to send you a quick reminder on how you should NOT be working in the office.
Maximum performance in the office for us coaches is possible only when you concentrate single-mindedly on the task—the most important task, and you stay at it until it is 100 percent complete.
Remember, multi-tasking is the antithesis of productivity. Multitasking is actually a myth. It is impossible. You actually cannot mentally and effectively multitask. We only have 1 brain and it does not function like a computer. The brain has only one channel for language.
Here are 2 ideas for how you can avoid multitasking during the day.
1. I believe that our need to multitask is significantly reduced when we do a better job of saying No and Yes. We need to stop scattering our energy, focus, and wasting our time on trivial things that have nothing to do with our vision and goals and start saying “yes” to our priorities and to what truly matters. Each day there is more to do than can get done. So we must make choices, and those choices include saying “no” to some people and opportunities so that we can say “yes” to the greater work we are meant to do.
2. List two or three multitasking activities you commonly engage in at work or at home. The next time you catch yourselfmultitasking, STOP! Take a moment to think about what you’re doing, and quickly choose one of those tasks to focus on first. Complete that task before you switch to the other one.
When we immerse in a single task, we can access phenomenal FLOW; that is when we can get into a really creative and productive place. It is the mental state where we are so focused and engaged with what we are doing, we produce our greatest results and where peak performance happens.
Keep it simple. Focus on 1 task at a time until it is finished. Don’t start a new task until the first one is finished. Your focus muscles may be weak if you are guilty of multitasking a lot. Something I have found super helpful to keep my focused while I am working is to set a Pomodoro timer for 25 minutes. Go to www.marinaratimer.com. When you get distracted, look at the clock and see how much more time you need to stay focused. Keep telling yourself to stay focused, stay focused, stay focused. It does get easier the more you do it. You just need to build your focus muscles up again.
Have a great productive week!