We live — and work — in an age where time to think is not allowed.
Or, rather, you have to fight for it.
It seems everybody has decided that at work — and in life generally — you are not entitled to have time to just think. If you are ever found sitting or walking not talking to somebody, not writing or reading something — you’re not working or “being effective”.
The standard mode of operation is to endure the non-stop barrage of information that ensues from the moment we wake and does not stop until we fall asleep. So many — myself included for a long time and until a short while ago — look at emails, Facebook or other information sources on their phone the moment they wake up and put the phone down only when the start no nod off.
During the day it’s reading emails or news or what have you over breakfast, on the train, listening to the radio in the car, then meetings and more emails during the day, talking to people, reading books on the train and so on and so forth. TV in the evening, while eating supper or talking to family while eating the same supper.
All good when broken up with some quiet time but most people never stop the inflow of information or the interaction, never given their brain the chance to catch up or analyse and process the information.
Our brains can dome some processing and collation as we sleep but they also desperately require quiet time during awake hours. Time to think through conversations that have been had, information that was read or heard, decisions that have been needing to be made.
Without the quiet time, we operate much less effectively. Information is not fully absorbed so that it can be called upon later. Wrong — not fully thought out — decisions are made, few ideas emerge.
Have you been asked too many times “don’t you remember we discussed this?” or “you really don’t remember I told you this?”. You might be hearing it because you’re having too many meetings, back to back, with lots of other information on top and your brain is struggling to keep up.
What’s the point of cramming lots of things in if you at most half of them get done properly and the other half is done badly or not at all?
Worst of all — you don’t get to pick which are done well and which badly. Instead, it’s a free-fall where you have little control.
Is it not better to make time for the brain to do its work and do everything well? Everything that you decide to do.
When the brain is given proper time to process the incoming information, wonderful and amazing things happen. Seemingly unrelated pieces come together and form into ideas, novel solutions — complex ones. Ones, which you would never come up with on the spot.
Our constant rush and drive to do as much as possible as quickly as possible only leads to many tasks and activities performed to sub-standard levels, problems arising which seem impossible to overcome and constant stress, which never goes away, further reducing performance — as well as hindering sleep and rest.
Less is more, less haste more speed — are all age-old sayings but are now more apt than ever and ones we should remember and stick to.
Here are some practical tips on getting more done, reducing stress and doing what we set out to do — better.
1. Schedule as much as possible. Meetings, quiet time, walks, kids school drop offs, reading and writing emails, reading time, sport, specific tasks — such as writing a proposal, reading a proposal and so on.
2. Leaving gaps between the events in the schedule. Don’t book everything back to back. Things overrun, buses and trains run late, there are traffic jams, coffee spills — you name it.
3. Not everything has to be done “this week”. Before agreeing to another meeting in the current week, or demanding a meeting from the team to discuss something week, think hard if it will it be actionable and if it has higher priority than everything else already in play. If it can wait – wait. Schedule for next week or week after.
4. Make sure you always include the right people. This is from a slightly different theme but at the same time it’s part of this one. Cramming things in, often with the right people missing due to availability just means less effective discussions, very often needing the discussion to be had again and generally less achieved and more time wasted.
5. Every time you have a free moment — don’t immediately reach for the phone, TV remote, the radio, book, newspaper etc. Every once in a while just sit or walk and allow the brain to “free style”. Let the thoughts come, allow the internal dialogue.
6. Better still — purposefully make time to allow this. Walks are best — since a changing, external environment stimulates thinking and recall of information. Break up the walks with standing around and taking in the view — or sitting down on a bench if there is one. Nature walks, or walks in parks are the best. The fewer people and man made objects — the better. 30 minutes to an hour ideally. Plus it’s exercise and fresh air — all of which also contribute to “better” brain activity.
7. Don’t be afraid to say “no”. People are so afraid to decline a meeting or request a reschedule these days. They seem to think that saying “no” equates to personal rejection and offence, shows a dislike. It is quite the opposite, in fact. Making proper time to do something, be it discussing something or getting something done for somebody — would result in better focus, more productive discussion, higher quality output and the same person who was “pushed back” getting what they will be much happier with. Explaining the workload, other tasks at play and the need to postpone — so as to deliver better — will ease the pain of rejection.
8. Don’t do several things at once. Don’t read emails in a meeting — on top of the meeting being a waste of time it’s also pretty rude, be it a group or a one on one. Don’t look at face book while eating breakfast, dinner, etc. Don’t have a conversation in parallel to another being in progress while in a meeting. Give whatever you’re doing full focus.
9. Give email, facebook and other activities allocated time and do them only during this time. Email, facebook and other information pipelines are not some background that must be continuously checked. As my wife says “if it’s urgent, they’ll call you. If you missed the call and it’s that urgent — they’ll call you back”. If email is a large part of your job — simply allocate significant time to it.
Try the lightened schedule for a week or two and see what difference it makes. If it makes none — you can always go back to your old ways.
Mind Iterations 