HIGH PRODUCTIVITY

Are you becoming increasingly frustrated with the growing number of tasks you have to handle? Not sure how to keep up with everything and still find time to enjoy your family and friends? Has doing several things at once become a major challenge?

It feels like we are constantly running an “endless marathon.” You work all day and still bring work home to finish at night and on weekends. You feel suffocated by your daily routine. First thing in the morning, you check your emails and spend the rest of the day “putting out fires,” answering calls and instant messages, moving from one meeting to another without even taking a lunch break — and before you realize it, the day is over, with much still left undone.

A few years ago, I read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. He said something along the lines of: “Time management is a misnomer. The real challenge is managing ourselves.” We usually assume the “problem” is outside of us — something we could eventually control. As if time were “a thing” — and once we learn how to control it, we could suddenly accomplish much more.

I believe this is a good moment to reflect more deeply on the term “time management”: it suggests that you can control time — which, of course, you cannot. We all have the same amount of time each day and, on average, the same amount of time in our lives. So once again, it is not time that needs to be managed, but ourselves.

If I say “manage your time better,” what comes to mind?

You probably think about making a to-do list, putting tasks in your calendar, organizing meetings…

But if we change the question to “manage yourself better,” what do you think about?

Perhaps about preparing yourself more effectively to accomplish the important things you are probably not doing.

I learned some important concepts from Tony Schwartz, writer and creator of programs in the field of high performance. The key lesson he presents is that our minds are designed to focus on one thing at a time — and that we are gradually losing this ability. We are constantly interrupted, which creates the need to do several things simultaneously — the well-known multitasking.

If we created a ritual to do one thing at a time, eventually it would become a habit — and success would be the consequence.

A good tip is to start the day with physical exercise — something to move and stimulate your body. Then have a balanced meal and set aside 15–20 minutes for quality reading.

It may sound counterintuitive, but why not try it and see whether it changes the rhythm of your day?

I have been trying to put these tips into practice. In addition to daily physical exercise — which has already brought many benefits to my body and work rhythm — starting the day with something other than reading emails has made a significant difference.

It is impressive: instead of being pulled into a wave of other people’s problems and demands early in the morning, I have had time to reflect on what I truly want and what really needs to be done that day.

Another important point raised by Schwartz is that we often mix different types of activities and create a real “gray area” — without a clear objective and with weak results.

Our routine is basically the same: we read an email, then make a phone call, return to the email, try to work on something, suddenly remember that we forgot to say something important to someone, and once again go back to the phone or email. And so the day goes by.

The main idea is to concentrate your work into blocks of time, without allowing interruptions — creating new routines that, over time and with practice, can become valuable habits.

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Andrej Vasle