“I don’t have the time!” [Stop Multitasking and Learn to Chunk Time]

“I don’t have the time!”

Do you say this often? Do you also happen to be a multitasker? 

Greetings all!

Did you know that when you constantly switch gears from one task to another, you actually lose time? Multitasking (or to be more precise, task-switching) is an enemy of productivity. One of my favorite sayings whose origin I no longer recall is, “I was not created a Swiss Army knife to multitask like this!”

To combat multitasking, I use a productivity technique called task batching: you schedule one task at a time and focus only on that task during the designated time chunk. This is how I do it:

1) Make a to-do list (see my "Listful Thinking" post).
2) Group similar tasks.
3) Schedule a dedicated time window (see my "Pomodoro Technique" post on allocating time blocks) and focus just on that task.

Example: How often do you interrupt your day to check emails? If possible, designate several daily time blocks just for emails, instead of getting distracted every time a new email message shows up in your inbox. Or go radical and check your inbox only once a day!

Of course, life might interfere and you will have to make adjustments - but why not give batching a try?

If you have some extra time today, keep on reading for the excerpt from Pedram Shojai’s book The Art of Stopping Time that I am currently enjoying. If not, thanks for stopping by and I hope you will try batching and let me know how it works out for you!

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I am currently reading Pedram Shojai’s book The Art of Stopping Time. The book provides helpful tips on how to feel in control of your schedule and find more time and peace. Here are my favorite passages from the chapter “Chunk Time”:

“One of the most powerful ways of leveraging time and feeling in control of your schedule is learning how to chunk time. This means assigning segments of time on your calendar for specific activities and keeping to those. E-mail time is for checking and writing e-mail. Family time is just that – no other distractions then. If you’re working on a report, that’s all you do, and if you’re on a date, be there with her.

The key to getting this is to let go of the false notion that multitasking somehow makes us better. It doesn’t work. It makes us more distracted, fragmented and anxious. The most effective people do one thing at a time; they stay focused, get it done, and then move on to the next thing... When you’ve committed to one thing at a time, you can then shut out all other tasks or distractions and stay focused. Knowing that you’ve scheduled the important stuff of the day means you don’t have to worry about running out of time...

Today take a look at how you run your schedule. Are you trying to do too many things at once? Are you overcommitted throughout the day and find yourself struggling to plug up holes in a sinking ship? That’s common. Time scarcity goes hand in hand with attention scarcity. If your focus is fragmented, you can’t do anything well; you’ll likely find yourself getting stressed out as new items come up when old ones are still incomplete.

Today organize your day into chunks of time for the things you have to do in your life... Commit to staying focused on items at their allotted times and see what happens...

Make sure you schedule chunks of time for rest, recover, food, family, and fun; if you only schedule work and obligations, something will break. We need dynamic balance in our lives, and adhering to a healthy schedule allows us to have that. Once you get the hang of this, you’ll find yourself more relaxed and happy. There is a spaciousness in knowing that you’re doing exactly what you need to be doing right now...

One thing at a time will get you there faster and give you plenty of time to enjoy the ride.”

With practice, I think we can all find that spaciousness - one task at a time! What did you think? Drop me a line!