SEAN WARD’S MONDAY MEDITATION

I’m gonna get a little more personal on this one. I had a topic prepared for this week’s Monday Meditation, but I’m gonna put that off for now and get into some deeper-level theory.

THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS MULTI-TASKING

Timothy Ferriss and his book The 4-hour Workweek are a major influence on my thinking right now. His and Raymi‘s are the blogs I keep an eye on day in and day out. Anyways, there’s a thing in Tim’s book where he calls bullshit on the idea of multi-tasking. I ran with it and I’ve been getting so much more done because of it.

We all like to talk about how we’re such great multi-taskers. We wear it like it’s a badge of honor. “Oh yeah, I’m a great multi-tasker.” But you are only ever actually doing one thing at a time. Multi-tasking really means that you get distracted constantly. You never get to actually focus on any one thing. Multi-tasking really means that you are the centre of a galaxy of unfinished projects and unrefined ideas.

I AM NO DIFFERENT

When I first started writing these articles, talking about productivity in the context of being an Artist, it made me clue in to to a few ways that I needed to take my own advice. Do you ever feel like you’re at the centre of a galaxy, and all of the stars are those important but not quite urgent tasks that never seem to get done?  I’m talking about those ones that each seem pretty easy – write a letter, mail off a package, research the answer to a question. Those aren’t so difficult.  But all together, it’s a big job that you’re saving for when you have the time for it.

DON’T DO A LOT IN A DAY

Based on Tim Ferriss’ suggestion of keeping a daily to-do list limited to a small number of critical tasks, I implemented a new policy: a 3-item to-do list.  If I’ve got more than than three things to do, they spill into the next day.  If I can’t come up with three, I have to dream some more up.

Here’s how it works: You have the day’s three items written on a sticky note, stuck to your computer screen, before bed the previous night.  You go to sleep knowing which one you’re going to start on when you wake up, and then you don’t do anything else – no email, facebook, myspace, phone messages, nothing – until you’ve completed that first job. Then check your correspondence.  But after you start one of your other jobs, don’t take a break until after it’s done.

IT’S COMPLICATED, HOW EASY IT IS

Here’s why three is the magic number: it’s enough items that you can feel like you’ve actually done something, but few enough that you’ll really feel like a jerk if you can’t do that many.

I tried experimenting with five and categorizing them, but that just complicated it unnecessarily.  With three jobs, you can always squeeze three into a day even if one gets out of control.  When it’s five, what if two of them don’t go smoothly?  There’s more of a risk of the system backing up.

Keep a pad of sticky notes on your table at all times (I like the yellow, ruled ones).  As you encounter something that needs doing, jot it down as a to-do for the next day.  If you receive an e-mail that will require some thought in it’s reply, write that reply down as an item.  Don’t just add it to the imaginary pile of correspondence in your head.

THIS IS HOW YOU MAKE THE TIME

Sometimes your next day is already filled up and something that’s not as urgent gets bumped.  Or you’re putting it on the list for two days down the line. The thing is to break everything down to actions and writing that down. ‘Write e-mail to so-and-so’ is a very clear and defined task. Not much to think about there.  ‘Respond to all e-mails’ is too broad.  It’s a concept and not an action.  It will always be one of those things you’ll get to on some imaginary occasion when you have the time for it.

This is what making time is all about!  Get on enough of a roll, and you’re getting your three items dinged off in record time for days at a stretch, leaving you all kinds of time for leisure and dreaming.  At the end of the day, that’s what success is all about.

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Tags: art, creative process, creativity, goals, ideas, life, productivity, rant, thoughts