Reduce attention switches

- I'm a huge advocate of focusing on one thing at a time and avoiding switch tasking, what many people call multitasking. Constant switches of your attention are the enemy of productivity, as they cause tasks to take longer, decreases the quality of work done, and increases stress levels. So what if you understand that principle and you want to stay focused and want to avoid switch tasking, but you work in a company culture or have a boss that still actively promotes multitasking as productive, despite all the research to the contrary? What do you do then? The first is to try to help them understand the true cost of switch tasking.

There's an exercise that you can walk them through. Rather than repeating it here, search for a video titled Addressing the Myth of Multitasking here on the library. What do we do with this? I recommend that you show this video to some coworkers or even your boss. If you have a group meeting and are given the opportunity to train, that would be a great way to do it. You can also follow up this with the next video titled Understanding the Consequences of Multitasking.

This exercise helps people experience the true cost of switch tasking for themselves. It helps them see, in roughly five minutes, what switch tasking is costing them every day. Helping people see the truth will change their behavior far faster than talking about changing their behavior. Also, I recommend that you go through my entire Time Management Fundamentals course yourself, even if your workplace is addicted to multitasking.

Why? Because the example that you set for your boss and for your coworkers makes a difference. If you perform well, they will likely want to know why. When I speak to audiences all around the world, I do an informal poll about how many people are completely in control of their time. Would it shock you to know that 2% or less of people feel that they're in control of their time right now? If you can be in that 2%, you stand out, and other people who are feeling the pain and frustration of a lack of time management will want to learn how you got to that spot of focus.

Now, what if, even after following these suggestions, you still have a boss that constantly wants to interrupt you with questions or continually asks you to switch task even in spite of your best effort? We want to build systems to help you stay as focused as possible. One way to do this is by suggesting a recurring meeting schedule. Your biggest problem with a boss who likes to switch task is likely an abundance of quick questions, where they jump in here and there, and they want to ask you what you're work on or need fast answers to projects they're working on.

You want to suggest, in a polite and a professional way, the idea of replacing lots of little interruptions with having a consistent meeting schedule. Allow me to share a suggested script, and then you can make it your own. I recommend that you use this script not right after someone asks you a question, but rather bring it up at another time when they haven't interrupted you. Here's the script. One challenge I'm running into is that we're interrupting each other so much that I'm being less productive for you.

I want to get the work done you're asking me to do and I want to do it on time, yet I feel these little quick questions are getting in the way. I'm wondering if we could set up a consistent one-to-one meeting schedule. That way, we both know we can count on that meeting every single week, and we'll interrupt each other less. Is there a schedule that would work for you? Then let them come up with the pattern and times. The resulting meeting schedule may not be perfect and may not completely alleviate their interruptions, but any improvement will start to have a significant impact on your productivity.

Approach it from the standpoint of what matters to them, how doing this will help you help them be more productive. By having a respectful conversation, I believe that you can find ways to reduce the switches in both of your workdays.