Job Advertisement: “Must be good at multitasking.”

Obviously the company that posted the above ad is not up-to-date on current research which shows that no one is good at multitasking. Now I realize that you are probably disagreeing with me right now, since you multitask throughout the day, but reality is that our brains are not good at executing demands to perform multiple activities simultaneously.

What actually occurs is a mental traffic jam where eventually one item breaks through, followed close behind by a second, and then a third. They may be so close together that it seems simultaneous, but in actuality one preceeds the next.

When MIT students were given two simple tasks to perform at the same time, identifying shapes and letters or colors, they could not do it and lost their composure. Once they were allowed to switch back and forth, they could do it, but it was very slow because they were forcing their brains to fire in different directions so quickly.

This mental traffic jam is causing stress as we pump adrenaline throughout the day. Over an extended period, there are both short-term (absentmindedness, since we are not focused) and long-term results (brain damage in our prefrontal cortex and hippocampus). Those two brain regions are associated with short-term memory and the abilities to assess and prioritize. The extended stress also ends up causing physical illness (80% of sickness according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).

It can appear that teens and even younger children may have a better ability to mulitask. Again, reality is that they are not better at it, they just have more practice. If you must multitask, be sure that one of the two things you want to do can be done without any thought, like running and listening to your iPod.

There is an old adage that says if you eat a frog first thing in the morning, the rest of your day looks pretty easy. If you have two frogs to eat, pick the biggest, ugliest one first. Your personal “frog” is the project or activity that:

• Yields the most benefit for you in reaching your goals or has the most importance for a company’s development
• Is the item on which you keep procrastinating
• Will normally give you a sense of accomplishment in getting it off your plate

Some tasks may fit all of these descriptions and some may only relate to one. My personal biggest frog is working out. Even though it doesn’t take mental acuity, if I don’t get it done first, chances are slim that it will happen later in the day, although it still lingers in my mind as a difficult, pending activity for the day. Once I have that out of the way, it makes the rest of the day seem easier. Then when I start work, after I do some quick clearing out of small items that have come up, I turn to the project that is going to take the most time and have the most impact (my second frog). From there, it is a downhill slope for the rest of the day.

We often hear about “morning people” vs. “night people.” Our internal clocks certainly have some effect on when we can focus, but reality is that there is only about a two-hour difference in peak mental concentration between the two groups. When you have a difficult project to do, it is normally best to set up an uninterrupted block of time earlier in the day, and use the afternoon for more routine work.

Without a plan to eat that frog first thing, you can wind up saying, “Where did this day go?” You were busy non-stop, but you do not feel that you actually accomplished much, and that significant activity you put off is still looming and creating little nagging feelings of guilt and stress.

• Are one of those people who lament the lack of personal time to escape from work issues, yet cannot bring yourself to let go of the Blackberry, laptop, and cellphone even when on a vacation?
• Are you a family member who wants a vacation without those electronic intrusions into your spouse’s “free” time?

There is now an answer! The Caribbean island of Anguilla has a hotel (Arawak Beach Inn) that confiscates laptops and any other handheld devices when you check in. You are not permitted internet access and have no television or telephone in the accommodations.

Quittting cold turkey may be a bit traumatic at first, but sometimes it can be necessary to save a relationship. I understand they go out of their way to make it up to you in other ways, and you may find it very freeing after the initial withdrawal.

It says something for our society when a true escape requires that we seek help in eliminating any other choices.

“Where did I put that document?” is often a common plaint when desks are stacked with piles of paper. However the same thing may happen with our electronic files even though, being out of sight, they don’t scream for organization.

The best way of handling electronic documents would be to have obviously labeled folders, and then subfolders, and subfolders for the subfolders. Yet even in organized computers, you can forget what you called something, or where you put a file that did not easily lend itself to a specific category.

The first thing you might do is go to the Microsoft Search feature (Start/Search/For Files or Folders). Yet this often seems to be ineffective in finding that item you need. To remedy this, companies came out with independent programs that index all the contents of your computer (e.g. Easy Reach). Then Google realized there was a chance to gain a foothold here, and they began offering the free Google Desktop Search. The drawback to this is that they take your files onto their computer and index them.

Finally Microsoft woke up and noticed how effective a program called “LookOut” was, and they bought the software. Now you can have access to a free and fast search engine that runs through all of your Microsoft products. Within a second or two after entering a keyword, you have a list, with that keyword highlighted, of all documents pertaining to your term. Their search includes Outlook as well as Excel, Word, etc.

The download for this free link is: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/desktopsearch/default.mspx.

It is far superior to the built-in Windows Search feature. Amazingly enough though, while it is easily available on their site, Microsoft doesn’t publicize this add-in. I suggest you try it. It is a good answer for those who don’t have time to create folders, as well as those who may be organized but still need a little extra help occasionally.

Two pieces of legislation, one from the House and one from the Senate, relating to mental health issues have recently passed. It is the latest step in a seven-year effort to craft a mental-health parity bill requiring insurance plans to match mental-health benefits with those for other medical conditions. The next challenge is to reconcile the two bills.

How do mental health issues affect productivity in the workplace?

• 222.7 million days of work are lost each year because of absences and problems pertaining to depression, costing companies $51.5 billion. (National Institute of Mental Health)
• Employees with depression who received support were 40% more likely to recover and 70% more like to stay employed, compared to a control group. (Journal of the American Medical Association 9/07)
• 9% of employees felt anxious or depressed, and those employees accounted for 40% of lost productivity. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)

Whatever form the final bill takes, it will cost employers more. However the payoff should come with increased productivity in the work place. From the study in the above journal, employees with the support program worked an average of two more hours a week than the control group. That came out to a $1,800 gain per employee, compared with the program’s cost of $100 to $400 per employee.

Another meeting to attend, and you won’t get any work done again today! That’s a common complaint in some companies, yet the schedule of meetings continues. There have been some changes with teleconferencing and videoconferencing, but the gatherings still occur with regularity.

A new study coming out from the University of North Carolina, Charlotte (Steven Rogelberg) finds that even though 50% of attendees complain about meetings, more than 60% of these gripers concede that they don’t mind attending. The most surprising result is that an ideal day for many would include at least one meeting.

How can you explain the disparity?

• Social: Meetings can be social events. It is not necessarily about what happens at the meeting itself, but the give-and-take before the meeting when you actually get out of your cubicle or small office and connect with others.
• Filling Time: Another outlook is that it looks like you are working since you are in attendance, but you don’t have to do much. You can look busy all day if you have multiple meetings.

What’s the answer? You certainly do not want to call more meetings than necessary. However, from a productivity standpoint, if you are in charge of a department or a company, you might want to be sure that all of your direct reports have a chance to interact at some point during the day. In some cases, you might have a short meeting without the meeting agenda, a free-flowing exchange of updates and challenges in a 15-minute session. You learn more about each other’s work and still have more time to devote to your own projects while filling the need for conversation and connection.

Have you noticed your corporate network slowing down lately? If yes, you might want to do a quick check of where employees are logging their time. With the proliferation of video sites like YouTube, more staff members are checking out the latest postings. Other popular sites include Yahoo, Fox, MSN, CNN, and ESPN.

Whether it is a stealthy break during the work day or an employee’s lunch hour, the downloading can result in a significant drain on company resources. The average online video files are seven times as large as an audio file and 100 times as large as a typical email message.

Some employers are starting to counteract this by blocking access to video because, even in “legitimate” cases such as breaking news, when everyone wants to check for updates, that can crash the system. However a blanket block can also make it difficult to be productive when you need to access information on customers and vendors.

It is a tough call. There is no doubt that internet access can be abused, lowering corporate productivity. On the other hand, blackouts can cause employee resentment in addition to limiting helpful information.

What have you observed? Knowing how colleagues use their work time, if you were the one creating policy, how would you vote?

1. Block access to video sites
2. Allow access but impose company rules on what can be visited
3. Post no restrictions

Tomorrow is designated as “Organize Your Home Office” Day. Whether you work full-time from home or simply pay your bills and file personal records at home, having an organized office space can change your outlook.

What makes a home office a good setting in which to work?

1. Furniture

Too often the home office is composed of leftover pieces that aren’t needed in another room. Ergonomics is not a consideration. Yet reality is that you may spend a great deal of time in this space. Inappropriate furniture, especially chairs, can lead to back or neck pain.

2. Lighting

If your work spot is a corner of the bedroom or dining room, you may be straining your eyes when you stay too long. Make sure you bring in good lighting sources.

3. Storage Space

You want to have filing space close to you, preferably in a desk drawer or nearby credenza where you can keep your active projects. If you do not have file drawers, consider a rolling cart that can be tucked away when not in use. You also want to have enough file cabinets to hold all of your reference materials. These do not have to stay close to you since they are not accessed as frequently.

Without the right amount of storage space for both papers and supplies, clutter tends to accumulate. Clutter is distracting, and it becomes harder to focus on the tasks at hand.

When you do not have the right setting in which to work, you either avoid spending time there or are not as productive as you should be for the time that you do spend. Look over your office space in terms of these three features–furniture, lighting, and storage–to see what can be improved. You will quickly notice an increase in productivity when your office when you have the right components.

Junk Drawers: Spaces that contain numerous unrelated items tossed loosely inside, usually in an effort to clean up.

I’ve just spent this week helping someone move their family of five to another house close by that had more options for them. The problem was not packing things up. After all, the movers are experienced at packing anything. The issue instead is how to unpack and be set up as quickly as possible in a new place and have it look welcoming.

When you have multiple junk drawers in each room of the house, the packers simply wrap up the contents together, and when you unpack in your new location, you end up with the same junk drawers.

If you were moving this month, how difficult would it be for you to get ready so that the change was easily accomplished? Even though you may have no plans to move at this time, it is a good idea to periodically reevaluate your organizing systems.

When you find yourself in a similar situation where drawers have simply become hiding places for clutter, you do not have to fix everything at once. Try this step-by-step approach:

• Block 30 minutes at week on your schedule to work on one drawer at a time.
• Determine what should be in that drawer. What is the most logical use for that location?
• Take out anything that doesn’t belong in the area.
• With what is left, group like items together within that space using suitable containers.
• Put aside whatever is left until you set up a location later for those pieces as you move onto another area to organize.
• Plan another 30 minute block of time on your schedule for the next drawer.

It is so much easier to manage your time effectively when you know where to find everything, and it is so much faster to clean up when you know where things belong. You may not actually move this month, but you will be ready for any opportunities.

My last post discussed how we stretch ourselves to the limit and then can push ourselves further when driving as we try to reach a destination quickly, often in the interest of better time management. At that same time the news came out about the possibility that two Mesa Air pilots both fell asleep in the cockpit and overshot their targeted landing by 15 miles.

Even when your actual job is flying or driving, you still can end up physically beyond your limits as you try to get more packed into each day, both in terms of miles traveled and tasks to get done before and after. The results can range from embarrassment to life-threatening situations.

In the case of the pilots, an investigation is pending. However just the thought that they could have fallen asleep at the controls is sobering. I know how many times I have become drowsy and pulled off the road to close my eyes for 10 to 20 minutes before continuing on. Sometimes the best time management is to take more time.