Overcoming Overload?

Posted by Ken
Mar 20, 2015 at 04:14 PM

Garland Coulson wrote:
I coach a lot of people on time management so here are a few thoughts.
> >If you could get a company wide project management system going that
>everyone used, then no one would have to email, phone or walk into your
>office and interrupt you for updates. Instead, each task and project is
>just updated with comments and progress reports. Saves a lot of emails.
> >The one I use personally is Teamwork.com.
> >Also, try to set aside at least one “Power Hour” each day where you turn
>off ALL notifications (phone, email, mobile), close your door and put a
>sign out that you are not to be interrupted unless the building is on
>fire. Then work on the most important priority task/project in that
>hour.
> >Exceptional performance requires exceptional focus - multitasking has
>been proven by science not to work.

I suspect that your first suggestion can be implemented in some environments easier than others, and as I work in a municipal government, I do not see it happening as software decisions are made in what seems like another solar system IMHO. By necessity, it is a bit of a top down structure, and Microsoft currently rules the day as we will be heading to Office365 in the near future.

I would totally agree about the “power hour”, but for me it usually comes at the end of the day after hours. It can be useful, but for a variety of reasons, it is reserved for special occasions like this recent overload.

And speaking of which, I wanted to give a very short update before I create a separate thread about a piece of software that was not discussed in this thread, but which I wanted to discuss. I open a Workflowy account, and can totally see why folks like it. The hoisting is very nice, and being cross-platform is great in today’s ever changing device environment. I used it to take notes rather than Asana, and it turned out that it helped me find a key mail message that somehow got deleted, but I mostly chalk that up to taking notes and not the program itself. But, Asana got neglected during that time, and I still find myself not comfortable using the most basic form of outline for containing a multitude of different projects, notes and tasks. I am primarily a folder kind of person, and am starting to warm up to judicious use of tags with them. Having said that, I suspect that Workflowy is not going to be an effective solution for me. But, I really do appreciate the wisdom and support that I received from everybody here. I am still in the midst of this mess, and it is probably going to last for some time longer, but a sanity check, a little support and some good work habit suggestions from everybody here are quite appreciated.

Thanks,

—Ken