Double Duty May Be Double Trouble Instead

There are much better ways to maximize your time and accomplish more without becoming exhausted, said Aaron Johnson, president of Vindy, in his CAMEX21 educational session, The Myth of Multitasking.

“I feel a large percentage of you probably have multiple browser tabs open right now,” Johnson joked to his online audience.

As the head of a company with a small workforce, Johnson said he wants to make sure his employees have the tools they need to be efficient without trying to multitask. As the father of three young daughters, he also wants “to make sure I’m fully done at 5 p.m. Mentally I want to be done. I don’t want to think about work when the day is done.”

With those motivations, he got interested in ways to improve efficiency and productivity. Multitasking doesn’t just refer to doing two tasks simultaneously, it can also involve switching back and forth on tasks or plowing quickly through five to 10 tasks without really thinking about the results. Rather than increasing efficiency, multitasking actually has a negative effect on short-term memory, anxiety levels, creative thinking, concentration, and accuracy, according to a variety of studies.

How can you avoid that mess? Here are Johnson’s recommendations:

“Things you put on a calendar are things you’ll accomplish. If it’s not on the calendar, your day’s going to dictate to you,” he said. “First thing in the morning, schedule out your day in 15- to 30-minute intervals, because that’s about the maximum extent of time we can focus on a particular task.”

The daily calendar should include breaks, at least brief ones to refresh your mind and energy. “You should hold breaks at least as sacred as tasks,” he said.

Also include “office time” when you’re available to others, “where employees can come and interact with you and know they’re not interrupting you,” Johnson said. Make sure your staff and co-workers know your door is open at office time but otherwise they should not stop by as you will be focusing on work tasks. “By creating office time, you avoid the constant barrage of interruptions,” he noted.

“Certainly almost all of us have a to-do list,” whether on a phone, sticky note, or something else, he said. “It’s just a big long list.”

Instead of one intimidating list, organize your to-do tasks with due dates. Assign tasks to specific days on your calendar. Each day, focus only on the tasks for that day.

Johnson said his office uses Trello software to create calendars and manage tasks. “I have due dates and separate columns for what needs to be accomplished,” he said. Emails sitting in his inbox are a distraction, so he uses Trello to create a card for any email requiring follow-up. “I create a due date and drag it into the appropriate column,“ he said.

This technique is intended to allow you to give your full attention to a task for 25 minutes, and then take a quick break before either resuming the task for another 25 minutes or moving on to something else on your calendar.

Vindy uses the Forest app for the Pomodoro technique, Johnson said. When the timer is set, the user “plants” a tree which continues to grow. If the user looks at their phone before the 25 minutes is up, the tree dies.

“You can do competitions with other people,” Johnson said. “In our office we compete to see who grows the most trees.”

“Everybody has different internal clocks,” known as chronotypes, he noted. Each person has certain hours of the day when they are the most alert and prepared to work. Be mindful of your own clock and schedule the most complicated tasks and meetings for your peak hours. Use the off-peak segments for smaller to-do’s and office time.

“There are some employees who can’t do their best work” at traditional working hours, Johnson noted. Where possible, allow employees to work at the hours that fit their internal clock, which might be noon to 8 p.m., for example.

Turn off all notification functions on computer and phone. “Those pings, it’s like a drug to us. We can’t help but look,” Johnson said.

Limit meetings to brainstorming sessions and strategic initiatives. Task management and updates can be handled through email or other communications. “Never have meetings that last longer than 30 minutes,” Johnson said. “If you have to, have breaks and come back.”

Close web browser tabs while you’re working.

Use headphones to block out environmental noise. “Classical music is really great,” Johnson said, but he advised against podcasts.

“Automate, automate, automate—that’s our mantra on our campus,” he said. His company has a rule: if anyone has to carry out a rote manual task more than two times, they need to figure out how to automate it. “That could involve setting up macros on a spreadsheet, or setting up rules to manage email, or ways to automate reports,” he said. Review your calendar for tasks that need to be done repeatedly and think about ways to automate them.