More emails, more media, more madness. For all the progress that we have made in the past 20 years, life often seems more difficult than ever. In her new book, Fully Connected, Julia Hobsbawm argues we’re heading for a health crisis if we don’t “balance face-to-face and technology, and discover where to find the off switch”.
Certainly, it’s good to take a breath, but we still have to get things done – with distractions at every turn. Here are some solid foundations that can help bring order to the chaos.
Get on top of emails, but only read what matters
In her book, Unsubscribe, author Jocelyn K Glei argues that email activates a primal impulse in our brains to seek rewards. We keep hoping an email with fabulous news will drop into our inbox, so we look again and again and again. None of which does much for our productivity.
Set aside only two or three blocks of 30 minutes a day for checking emails, says Glei, and be selective about what you read – all those back-covering, box-ticking communications only need a quick glance. It’s a tool not a task, she says – so don’t let it rule you.
Don’t trust your memory: write everything down
It worked at school and it can work in everyday life too – you remember something much more clearly if you write it down. Plus, it helps highlight areas you need to focus on. Relying on your memory is never enough. It may last a few minutes, giving you time to find a notepad, but wait till the end of the day and you’re doomed to have forgotten what you were going to write down.
People store these notes – so experiment until you find what works for you. Some have diaries, so they can refer back via dates; others use note-taking software on their phones or laptops.
Have a place for everything – and everything in its place
Life gets chaotic if you can’t find what you need when you need it. Not being able to find a USB stick, phone charger or credit card is bad enough – but what about those all-important legal documents stored somewhere on your computer? Yes, you can search via a word, but which word?
It’s best to devise your own system for organising things, but you could start by sorting the documents you need into groups, according to their level of use. That means having the files you need all the time closest at hand – and, at the other extreme, packing away the files you rarely use. Update your filing religiously – and pin a reminder of how your system works to your wall – and you’ll mitigate the mayhem.
Write lists and cross tasks off as you do them
Old-school to-do lists are peerless – even the techiest of the tech-savvy accept that pen and paper rule when it comes to organising your day. Breaking individual tasks into smaller, more achievable segments will make the list all the more satisfying to work through – and you’re much more likely to start a task that feels doable.
It’s also a good idea to mark tasks with the time you expect them to take. Just writing down that estimate should help you avoid wasting time on distractions.
Find time to organise
Many people finish their day with a quick tidy-up – 15 minutes or so devoted to putting everything in place for the following day. If you can’t find time for that, try allocating a longer period every week – Monday morning or Friday afternoon can work well. Update your calendar then too, making sure everyone who needs to can see what you’re up to in the coming days.
Don’t multitask important jobs
Unexpected events and people pop up in almost everyone’s day. The key is to not get distracted by them if you are on a deadline or really need to concentrate. Turn off any notifications on your devices – and, many people would say, keep them turned off. Stopping to read an email eats up more time than you might imagine. Research shows that it takes, on average, more than 23 minutes to fully recover your concentration after a trivial interruption.
