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OPINION
Email is a great tool, but if it’s not managed efficiently, it can dominate our day and rob precious time from getting work done. Boost productivity by time blocking
O ne day, I arrived for a coaching session with a project manager. The receptionist said the project manager was wrapping up a call and would be out soon. From my seat, I could see across the office to where my client was immersed in her call. As she hung up, she glanced at her computer screen and dove into, I assume, responding to an email. And then someone came up to her desk to ask her a question while she was typing. After 15 minutes of observing her, I decided to approach and remind her of our appointment. She literally jumped out of her chair. “Oh, my god, I forgot about you. I mean, I didn’t. I had our meeting in my calendar until a client called, and then I tried to answer somebody’s question. I got distracted!”
Leo MacLeod
Sound familiar? Microsoft conducted a study and found that every interruption costs us about 15 minutes of productivity – whether we are being interrupted or we are breaking from a task. Part of that loss is due to the time it takes to recover and refocus. But they also found that it’s often a new distraction, in the form of an email, text, call, or someone wanting our attention, that pulls us away. Because time is finite, we often try to cram as much in as possible. We believe we can handle it by multitasking: thinking and doing many things at once.
What we commonly refer to as multitasking is better described as task-switching. The brain is not capable of intently focusing on two serious tasks at the same time, explains productivity psychologist Dr. Melissa Gratias. “Our brain does not perform tasks simultaneously. It performs them in sequence, one after another,” Dr. Gratias says. “So, when we are multitasking, we are switching back and forth between the things we are doing.” When we split our time and jump back and forth, we risk losing details and the power of our focus. We lose the thread of
See LEO MACLEOD, page 10
THE ZWEIG LETTER SEPTEMBER 19, 2022, ISSUE 1457
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