The research is clear, you can’t multitask efficiently when one of the activities requires focus.
It’s not a debate.
We now know that trying to do things at once decreases your ability to comprehend information, hurts your long-term memory and crushes productivity. I’ve read about a study that shows it takes your brain nearly 25 minutes to get back to the same level of concentration once you’re distracted.
But, you already knew this.
You’ve undoubtedly worked early in the morning or late without anyone else in the office. An amazing thing probably happened. You were likely able to get more done in a couple of hours than you do in a typical day. Guess why?
We’ve convinced ourselves that because technology allows us to do many different things at once, we should. Many of us may feel certain that checking an email while participating in a conference call and researching a prospect is the most effective utilization of our time.
Frantically multitasking all day long might make you feel busy, but it rarely leads to the productivity you’re hoping to achieve.
Something’s got to change.
Taking Control Of Your Day
First, let me be clear — I love and fully embrace technology.
I appreciate the opportunity to send a quick email to a friend, co-worker or peer in place of a long, drawn-out conversation. I upload plenty of files to Dropbox, listen to podcasts and keep track of college and high school buddies on Facebook.
This is not an article bashing technology that ultimately concludes with why we should all cut all ties to modern society. Instead, I’ll focus on a handful of simple tactics that are designed to improve your productivity without living in a cave.
Turn It Off
As I write this, I’m coming back from a mission trip to Mexico. For the majority of the time, I didn’t have access to my phone, nor did many of the professionals I was with on the job site. Believe it or not, the world didn’t come to a crashing halt for any of us.
The simplest and most effective advice to help you keep technology from becoming a distraction is ridiculously obvious: Turn everything off. Unless your wife is pregnant and due within the next 30 days, you can all go for an hour without interruption from your phone, email, Slack, etc.
Block Your Schedule
After reading the above paragraph, you’re likely to have one of two reactions: hysterical laughter at the idea that you could ever “disconnect” or sheer panic at the thought that you could miss out on an important message (like a coupon from Burger King).
Relax, I’m not suggesting that you wake up, check your phone and then crawl into a cave, completely oblivious to the outside world, for the next 12 hours.
Instead, I’m simply recommending that you set aside time throughout the day for focus and separate time to connect with others. This schedule will look different for everyone.
Focus In Meetings
Based on my perception, not many people like meetings. We often think they’re a huge waste of time and might even do everything in our power to avoid attending. But, as I’ve learned from author Patrick Lencioni, meetings are by far the most valuable part of your day.
Our job is to get as much value as possible from every meeting on our calendar. The best way to ensure this takes place is by keeping all of the participants focused. This is impossible if you’re battling for attention because everyone brings a phone or laptop to the meeting.
Here’s a crazy idea: Prohibit technology from your meetings. You heard me right. Tell your team that they can bring a pen and paper, but that’s it. (If someone needs to take notes and a laptop makes the most sense, only let one person be the exception.)
Touch It Once
You don’t need me to reference a study or brilliant research to convince you that digital communication (email, text, instant messaging, etc.) is crushing productivity in the workplace. We spend too much time reading, rereading, forwarding, sharing, etc.
Spending less time involved in all this noise requires discipline to engage with each piece of communication as infrequently as possible. Here’s a simple tip: Every time you read an email, text or instant message, do one of the following five things with it.
1. Attend: If you can address the issue or question in less than 60 seconds, then do it immediately and move on.
2. Delegate: If this doesn’t relate to you and should be handled by someone else, get rid of it quickly and move it forward to the right person who can close it out.
3. Delete: Let’s be honest, more than half of your emails are likely spam, trash talk from the people on your fantasy football league or emails that you’ve been copied on that have nothing to do with you. When these messages hit your inbox, delete them immediately.
4. File: If you get an email that you’d like to reference later, file it in the appropriate folder. Leaving it in your inbox so that you can search for it later is not the same thing. You should aim to have less than 10 emails in your inbox by the end of each day (quit complaining — it’s completely doable).
5. Ignore: This applies to the random group text and instant message chains that fly around your office all day long. I’d ignore most of them. If it’s important, someone will give you a call.
You can’t bury your head in the sand and ignore technological advances in the marketplace. The amount of information you receive each day isn’t going to slow down any time in the near future. Your goal should be to leverage the upside of these new tools without allowing constant distractions to overtake your day.
This won’t be easy. However, by disciplining yourself to set aside time for distractions and resisting the urge to constantly be “available,” you can take back control of your professional life.
