Even if you love what you do (and you should…life’s too short to not be passionate about what you’re doing!) why work more hours than you need to? In this short video I’m talking about how context-switching can cause you to lose hours a day, which in turn makes for much longer workdays than needed. Also, something I didn’t bring up in the video is the cause of errors that can happen when you do context-switching.
I don’t believe in the word balance, however, I do believe in having as much free time as we desire for the remaining parts of our life outside work and career. And we can, if we work smarter. Remember, you can be busy but not productive, or you can be productive but not busy. When you feel as if you’re accomplishing things it helps to reduce overwhelm and that feeling of spinning the wheel.
Love to hear your thoughts! Leave a comment below on what your main resistance is at work that cause you to bounce from task to task?
Thank you for the video!!! If you can do it, I can do it {smile} ….
My biggest task interrupter is phone calls. Also, not knowing the next step or being clear about how I’m going to do something.
Yes, you can definitely do it! It gets less scary each time. For phone calls, set boundaries such as I will call back certain times, that way people know when to expect hearing from you. Batch when you return phone calls so that you set a block of time when you only do phone calls (or only return emails or only return texts). We survived for centuries without being available 24/7, so you just need to set clear rules and expectations. But if you immediately answer the phone you train people that you are always available. Which means you don’t get your work done, which creates overwhelm and stress and then spills into the rest of your life so you’re not fully present in either. Be 100% focused and present in whatever you do at that time.
For not being clear on the next step…build out your task into smaller tasks by asking “What’s the next step I need to do?” and keep building it out until you have a clear plan on how to knock out that one task. That goes for a big project too…keep building it out by mapping it. A great tool I use is Workflowy. It’s a great way to build out one task and have a visual.