The WSJ today nicely summarized the top time management systems, including GTD, Pomodoro and Covey. The article was perfect timing to compliment the article on this blog today about multitasking. Personally, I love GTD and think that Pomodoro is a great add on for keeping on task. Both are great systems that promote single-tasking.
From the WSJ:
• Getting Things Done: The reigning gorilla of time management, "GTD," as its followers call it, was created in the 1980s by David Allen, an Ojai, Calif., consultant whose coaching, training materials and seminars can be found at davidco.com. Mr. Allen has since sold more than one million books about GTD and attracted 1.2 million followers on Twitter. GTD's aim is to corral all the projects and tasks floating around in your head into an organizing system you update weekly. No matter what chaos erupts, the system in theory enables you to quickly identify the next step to take on every front to keep all your projects moving forward, while keeping your mind clear to relax, think and be creative.
• The Pomodoro Technique: This quirky method had me working in intense spurts guided by a kitchen timer shaped like a tomato—or pomodoro, in the inventor's native Italian. Developed by Francesco Cirillo, director of XPLabs, a software design firm based near Rome, this technique is spreading via Twitter and other social networks. It can be learned in a few hours from a free guide at pomodorotechnique.com; making it a habit takes up to 20 days.
Showing posts with label Singletasking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Singletasking. Show all posts
Stop multitasking!!!
For years now, the idea of multitasking has been seen as a productivity enhancing activity. But, anyone who has tried to talk to someone on the phone who is also doing their email knows that they are not either productive or effective at either task. We should think of multitasking as doing multiple tasks badly. You don't save any time usually, and most often it will add time to your overall day. AND, you'll have to redo many of the tasks because there will be so many errors, because your attention cannot be on two tasks at once. I have been in call centers before when people were trying to answer technical support calls and read a book at the same time. How well do you think that support rep understood the customer that was on the phone?
We should be clear that there are delays in some processes, and during those delays filling that time with something productive is a good thing. THIS IS NOT MULTITASKING. This is time management, which is good and will enhance productivity. Start enhancing your effectiveness today, by not jumping to a new task anytime that your computer system has a 10 second delay (10 seconds isn't enough time to switch to a new task!), making to-do lists and staying on each single task until it is complete and please, for the sake of all of us, don't talk on the phone and do email at the same time.
This idea also transfers to talking on the phone and driving at the same time!!!!
We should be clear that there are delays in some processes, and during those delays filling that time with something productive is a good thing. THIS IS NOT MULTITASKING. This is time management, which is good and will enhance productivity. Start enhancing your effectiveness today, by not jumping to a new task anytime that your computer system has a 10 second delay (10 seconds isn't enough time to switch to a new task!), making to-do lists and staying on each single task until it is complete and please, for the sake of all of us, don't talk on the phone and do email at the same time.
This idea also transfers to talking on the phone and driving at the same time!!!!
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