All in personal effectiveness
I finished "Stretch: Unlock the Power of Less - and Achieve Than You Ever Imagined" by Scott Sonenshein a few weeks ago, and have had the ideas rolling around in my head since then. I really like the overall premise of the book: lean towards Stretching instead of Chasing. I found that it nicely connects to the ideas of Theory of Constraints and process improvement in general.
Personal productivity writers and thinkers harp on and on about email. And for good reason - our default behavior around email creates a lot of chaos. Dan Ariely has been thinking about this and the result was "A Behavioral Economist Tries to Fix Email" in The Atlantic earlier this month.
A video about multitasking told from the perspective of a design engineer who was lost in the world of multitasking - it took him four weeks to do a 2-4 day design task.
"The rule of five" is a new-to-me idea for managing multitasking at the individual level. It's a combination of the task board and the idea of dropping things to the floor. Have an explicit list and keep it in control. Interesting.
My network is not the vast number of people I'm connected to on LinkedIn or Facebook or Twitter.
Everyone wants to kill email. I'm no fan of it either, but it does serve a purpose - a purpose that no other tool serves quite as well. Or more specifically, better than any SINGLE tool serves.
I came across a great illustration by Henrik Kniberg, summarizing a talk he did recently on the topic of how to create and maintain focus. The blog post is a set of short commentary, all revolving around the three points illustrated: Create slack; Say no; Stop thinking, "I don't have time".
It's 18 October 2016, and it is the annual occurrence of Information Overload Awareness day. It's not like we forget we are overloaded every other day of the year.
I've always thought the idea of context was interesting. Johanna Rothman thinks so too, "We all start from our own contexts."
Want to be more effective in your work? Stop "just checking" those notifications. They drain your attention and slow you down.
People are notorious multitaskers - not just one age group. I see my mother respond to every ding and jingle of her phone or iPad. And my kids. And me. And many others. Change the behavior by teaching and showing and expecting different behavior.
Another version of "too long, didn't read" is this cartoon. A friend sent me a slightly modified version, so I tracked down one that looked more original.
"Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving." - Albert Einstein
Many people have talked about Angela Duckworth' Grit: the power of passion and perseverance. I was happy to find a high-level summary from Inc. Magazine that describes the "11 signs of grit."
Don't block yourself because you think you know. There is always something to learn.
If you find yourself dragging, and the coffee is merely a delicious distraction, maybe the problem is a little more interesting: lack of clarity!
We seem to be addicted to busy. Does the busyness help? Does it hurt? Do we swim around in a lake, getting nowhere? Or do we row down the river, ensuring we don't get stuck?
A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time. - Annie Dillard
More on time management and multitasking. It's a topic near and dear to what I've been doing for many years.
The recommendation? Give it a whirl - try something more focused on the task at hand. And if it doesn't work, email will always be there, like an old habit that you can't break.