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INFORMATION OVER-LOAD: ARE YOU IN CHARGE OF YOUR DAY OR DOES YOUR OWN MENTAL CLUTTER GET IN THE WAY?
No matter what we do for a living, all of us
face an avalanche of distractions each day that can throw us off our game. We must constantly keep asking ourselves,
“What do I have to pay attention to right now, what can wait until later, what
might be good to know but not essential to my success and what can I safely
ignore?”
According to a recent article in the McKinsey
Quarterly on information overload (http://tiny.cc/mu0fi),
the challenge of staying focused in midst of
an excess of information pre-dates the Computer Age. Writing in 1967, management guru Peter
Drucker recommended that executives reserve large blocks of
time on their calendars for thinking, not answer the phone and return calls
only once or twice a day. While
Drucker’s readers in the 60’s didn’t have to deal with digital technology, his
admonitions nonetheless ring true today.
Those with leadership responsibility at any
level face a torrent of email messages, phone calls, text messages, Tweets,
Facebook postings, blog comments and messages on other social media platforms
that might contain useful customer feedback or information about competitors,
new products and business trends. How
can we avoid being buried by this information tsunami?
Many of
us believe that if we excel at multitasking, we can stay on top of this
wave. Research cited in the McKinsey
article reveals that multitasking is an ineffective coping mechanism leading to
lower productivity, lower creativity and impaired decision-making. The reality is that multitasking slow us
down. The human brain does its best work
when focused on one task at a time.
Individuals may dispute this conclusion, but the evidence is in. For example, why is it now illegal to text
while driving?
The
inefficiency caused by multitasking is due to the brain’s inability to let us
perform two actions at the same time.
While multitasking may allow us to cross off simpler tasks on our to-do
lists, it rarely helps us resolve more difficult problems. Multitasking can become simple procrastination.
Multitasking
can also make us anxious. People
required to multitask show higher levels of stress. The information overload associated with
multitasking lessens job satisfaction and can disrupt personal
relationships. And multitasking can
become addictive by causing specific ‘emergency’ hormones to be released in our
bodies.
So if
multitasking doesn’t work, what can we do?
·
Be
highly disciplined in how you use your time
·
Constantly
set and update your priorities
·
Be
focused on what matters most. Beware of
cruising through information that may be nice to know, but not essential for
the tasks at hand. As one CEO said, “You
have to guard against the danger of over-eating at an interesting intellectual
buffet”
·
Encourage
your colleagues to respect your priorities.
One colleague of mine used to place a “Focus Time” sign at her work
station. She made it clear to all of us
that unless the business was in immediate jeopardy and her input was critical
to resolving a crisis that we were to leave her alone. She only posted this sign a few times a week,
and usually only for a few hours, so we respected her wishes
·
Filter
the information as it comes at you. Know
what you can ignore, what you can skim, what you must read in detail later and
what you must deal with right now
·
Give
your brain down time during the work day to solve problems and reset your
priorities so that you are focusing on the right things. A quick walk, a short
workout, and a set period of time away from all communication technology can
all help the brain to do its best work
Accept the fact that
multitasking is not heroic. Understand
that it is really counterproductive. Instead
of doing a half-baked job on five tasks at once, then be forced to take additional
time to fix your mistakes, work on one task at a time but get it right the
first time
HOW TO AVOID INFORMATION OVER-LOAD:
·
Pay attention to how
you use your time
·
Constantly refresh
your priorities
·
Focus on what matters
most
·
Make sure your
colleagues know and respect your priorities
·
Filter the
information coming at you
·
Give your brain some
down time every day
·
Stop
multitasking. It’s counterproductive; it
wears you down
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