This blog has recently discussed the challenges with information overload. One of the issues confronting us is that we let things like e-mail control our day. This prevents us from focusing on the key areas of creating either personal or business value. We end up being distracted by any number of things during the day. Whether you work in an office or at home, there are many external distractions that can easily get us off track.
I came across a great article in Inc. magazine the other day. Ilya Pozin, from Inc., interviewed TonyWong, a project management blackbelt whose client list includes Toyota, Honda, and Disney, to name a few. He’s an expert in keeping people on task.
Headlines are:
- Work backwards from goals to milestones to tasks.
- Stop multi-tasking.
- Be militant about eliminating distractions.
- Schedule your email.
- Use the phone.
- Work on your own agenda.
- Work in 60 to 90 minute intervals.
Check out the full article for the details and advice. My favorite was the one on multi-tasking. Switching from task to task quickly does not work. In fact, changing tasks more than 10 times in a day makes you dumber than being stoned. When you’re stoned, your IQ drops by five points. When you multitask, it drops by an average of 10 points, 15 for men, five for women (yes, men are three times as bad at multitasking than women).
Thanks to Ilya and Tony for the excellent advice.
Here is the link to the full article. http://www.inc.com/ilya-pozin/7-things-highly-productive-peolple-do.html
Let me know what you think about this post by commenting below.
Have a great weekend!
Webman
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