At times, I reckon I’m the biggest idiot going around!

I’ve designed time management programs,

I’m known as someone who is highly effective,

I’m often asked how I can get so much done in a day

And yet, I find myself making the same damn stupid mistake.

And it always ends up with me feeling stressed, overwhelmed

and worse… just damn unproductive.

Ever felt like that?

Well I sure have and today I want to talk about one of the major causes of overwhelm and what you can do to stop it.

So are you ready?

Here it is – Stop Multitasking!

Yep, it’s that simple. Just stop and work on one task at one time.

Ok, so I can hear the uproar now:

Niro, how am I supposed to stop multi tasking? I have so much to do and it’s the only way I can get stuff done…

Really?

Let’s think about it for a second. Multi tasking involves focusing on multiple things on one time. It’s like fragmenting parts of your brain and only using a small part of it one task and another part of it on another.

Now I don’t know about you but I’ve never claimed to be the smartest cookie on the planet. So I figure I need to use all my brain on one task.

Honestly! Are you telling me that you can focus on creating an article, putting together a high level sales presentation or taking part in an important face to face negotiation while also being on the phone, having a sandwich and clipping your nails?

If you can, you are probably much smarter than I am and you should stop reading now.

However, for the rest of us mere mortals, you might want to try the following:

Focus all of your efforts on your most important task at one time.

Why?

Let’s say you are working on something important like a blog post, a presentation, the next chapter in your book and you get interrupted, research shows that it can take you around 20 minutes to get back into the flow of what you were doing before.

If you get interrupted just three times a day, that’s an hour of productive time you have lost. (By the way, most of us get interrupted way more than just 3 times each day.)

How many times have you asked yourself? “If only I could have an extra hour per day…”

Well, here’s the answer.

Stop multi tasking.

Instead, make a list of everything you need to do, allocate priorities to each task and then get to work on your most important task

And when you work on that task, work only on that task. Turn off the phone, put a “do not disturb” sign on your door… whatever it takes…. just make sure you can work on your most important task without interruption.

But… when it comes to multi tasking – the biggest interruption comes from within us. I know that just when I’m in the middle of doing something important, my brain likes to vomit up other things that I could be doing.

I’m guessing my brain is trying to help me but it’s help I could do without. I still have not figured out how to stop my brain from doing this.

So instead, I have a note book by my side. And whenever I get these bouts of mental dhiorrea when I’m working, I just jot down whatever comes into my head.

By jotting it down, I can take it out of my head which means I can then refocus on my top priority.

Why not give this a go?

I guarantee that if you often find yourself feeling overwhelmed quite frequently, it’s because you feel like you just have way too much to do at the one time. Whenever, this happens, don’t try to be a hero… instead, stop and take a breather.

Jot down everything you have to do and then work on your top priority.

You’ll be far more happier… and by the way, since you’ll be using all of your brain on one task you might be impressed by just how great that next chapter of your book or that next presentation comes out.

Try it… what do you have to lose? Except for those useless feelings of being unnecessarily stressed and overwhelmed.

And if you’re a female reading this and thinking that it is only us dumb guys who can’t multi-task, trust me… once you start focusing on your top priority and stop leaking mental energy on other things, you will be amazed at just how much more you get done and how much of a better result your efforts produce.

By the way, if you are interested in further information about dealing with overwhelm, see my post about how to handle stress and stop feeling overwhelmed.

And before you go, do me a favour and let me know what you thought of this. Do you think multi tasking is the new biggest time waster?

Until next time,

Niro

PS: If you think this post is valuable, please share it on twitter, facebook and stumbleupon. Thanks so much

I love technology. I’m a big fan of the latest gadgets, social media and anything else that’s happening right now.

But I also hate technology because of all the extra things I have to handle in my life.

Sure I love interacting with people on Facebook & Twitter.
And I love being able to quickly send an email or a message
to someone on my Blackberry while on the run.

That’s all good but…

All the extra little things that I could be doing end up
taking my focus away from the things that actually matter.

I have to be so careful with my time because I could
easily end up being so busy doing the little things that
I end up achieving nothing of importance.

Ever felt that way?

I have come to believe that there are really only two
states that we should be spending our time in.

One is a state of total productivity – complete focus on
our highest priorities that will move us forwards towards
achieving our major goals in life.

The other is a state of complete relaxation where we
spend time with the people we love, doing the things we
enjoy…

For instance walking down the beach holding the hand
of the person you love…

Spending time laughing with your kids….

Taking time to meditate and connect with yourself.

You get what I mean.

But let me ask you a question…

Does checking your blackberry while you’re out on
a date with your lover fit into one of these states?

No.

How about taking client phone calls while spending the
day with your family?

No

What about spending idle time on facebook when you
should be working on your top priority?

No.

Do you get my point?

Now sure, you need to fit in the other things like doing
the laundry, shopping for groceries and cleaning the
house.

But I really believe that if you can create these boundaries
for yourself where…

When you work, your REALLY work!

And when you relax, you REALLY relax…

In other words, by focusing on your top priorities and doing
your best to eliminate distractions from both your work life
AND your personal life, you can get more done and…

You can relax more easily and more completely.

When this happens, guess what? You also become happier
too.

Give this a whirl and leave me a comment below and tell me
whether you’re enjoying more happiness, being more relaxed
and getting more done. I bet you will

Now to go grab a hot chocolate and really relax

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Today we are busier than ever before. While technology constantly gives us more tools that are supposed to streamline our lives, we just seem to have more and more to do, and less time to do it in. Feelings of stress and overwhelm are at their highest levels and people are sick of the word “time management” which just seems to imply different ways to try and cram even more into your already over-full day.

The Undergroundsucess.com philosophy is that every day should be a day you look forward to, one where you can appreciate the beauty of life while making progress towards your goals. I guarantee that if every day, you are making progress towards what’s most important to you in life, you will feel a greater sense of productivity, inner peace and fulfilment. If that sounds interesting to you, if you’re interested in being more productive, having more time, achieving more, enjoying more of life, being more relaxed and generally happier, then below are 15 tips you can implement immediately.

Allow me to offer a key distinction between productivity and just being busy. Being productive is using your time to achieve what’s important for you, while being busy just means to fill your time with as much as you possibly can. So please go ahead and read below my 15 tips on how you can increase your productivity and then more importantly, practise them!

Productivity Tip #1: Ask What Can you Stop Doing
I know that one of the promises of this post was to help you get more done. However, the first thing to understand is that there are only 24 hours in a day and we will always be able to fill up that time. So the only way to get more done is to create a vacuum of time. Many people think that time management is just getting more done and they continue to add more onto their plate and before soon they are sinking under the weight of everything they have to get done. So work out what you can stop doing or at least what can you outsource. Tim Ferris, in his brilliant book The 4-Hour work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich, shows exactly how he does it. For me, one of the things I do is I pay to get my car washed. This frees up approximately 2 hours of my weekend. Now that’s 2 hours I can use elsewhere. What can you stop doing?

Productivity Tip #2: Batch low value tasks
If you have a few errands to run, or quick phone calls to make, do them in one hit. For example, rather than going to the grocery shop 3 times a week, make a list, just go once and buy in bulk if you need to. Answering emails is another example. Many of us are hooked to our emails and are constantly “on email”. I now aim to only answer emails twice a day. That way I’m not interrupted from doing more important tasks. Also, by batching your low value tasks you will find that you get more done in a shorter space of time

Productivity Tip #3: Get rid of distractions
This is a massive one in today’s era of modern technology: emails, instant messaging, status updates, sms etc. When you are in the middle of an important task and you get interrupted or distracted, it can take you up to 20 minutes to get back into the zone. If this happens 3 times in a day, that’s 1 hour of lost productivity. In a fortnight, that’s 10 hours or more than one whole day of lost productivity, just from being interrupted. Imagine what you could do if you had a whole extra day every fortnight. Now you know how.

Productivity Tip #4: Use Your Prime Time
The television networks know about prime time – that is the time when most people are watching and they will get their best return for their money. Hence, they put on their best shows during this time. What is your prime time? Your prime time is the time when you are at your most productive. Use this time to take on your most challenging and valuable tasks. For me, my prime times are either in the mornings or evenings. I try to keep my afternoons for lower value tasks while my mornings and evenings are set aside for tasks that require significant thinking.

Productivity Tip #5: Create Chunks of Time
Create chunks of uninterrupted, focused time where you can work solidly for between 45 to 90 minutes. Aim for this to be during your prime time and eliminate all distractions during this time. You will be amazed at how much more productive you are and how much relaxed you are at the same time.

Productivity Tip #6: Single minded focus
When you work, especially during your pre-designated chunks of time, don’t allow yourself to think about what is coming up later in the day, or what the kids are up to. Focus on your task at hand. If you’re like me, the moment you focus on one thing, your mind starts bringing up other things that you also need to get done. This used to stress me out before as I’d try to remember everything I needed to do, while trying to focus on my current task. That made it impossible to be productive and just stressed me out. So now, if ever a thought or a future task pops into my head, I just write it down on a notepad and then keep on working, until I’ve either completed the task or my pre-designated chunk of time has finished. This has made me so much more productive and allowed me to get a lot more done in less time.

Productivity Tip #7: Don’t Multi-task
That might sound weird in a world where we taught that multitasking is the key to increased productivity. This could not be more wrong. I know women can multitask better than men can, and while that may be true, it only applies to low value tasks. For example, answering the phone while filing papers. Anything that involves considerable think time requires single minded focus.

I know this might not sit right with you so try it for a week. Try focusing solely on one major task at a time and watch your productivity sky rocket.

Also, there was a report that came out which showed that multitasking actually reduces your intelligence, mainly I believe, because you stop doing the hard work of thinking. So don’t multi-task, at least not when you’re doing high value tasks. Do things with a single minded focus and I’d be surprised if you did not at increase your productivity by at least 30 to 50%.

Productivity Tip #8: Goals
Make sure you set goals for yourself both long term and short term goals. Unless you know where you are heading, it is so easy to get frustrated and overwhelmed with how much you have to do. I guarantee that your productivity in life is directly linked to how much time you spend working on your goals.

Productivity Tip #9: Prioritise
When you set daily goals for yourself, prioritise them. A key distinction to go from being busy to being more productive is to allocate your time to your highest value tasks. What is the most important task for the day, then the next important and then the next important after that. This way, you know you are always tackling the most important task on your list and if anything comes up during the day that takes your way from your plan, you have peace of mind knowing you have at least achieved your most important goal for the day.

Productivity Tip #10: Write everything down
It does not matter how well you try and order your day, unexpected and new tasks will be thrown at you. Whenever a new task comes up, write it down and compare it in importance to your already scheduled priorities for the day. This one tip has saved me a bucket load of stress and increased my productivity substantially because more often than not, an unexpected task that comes up is often of a lower value than what I already had planned for the day. So I can stick to my original plan. How many times have you had a plan for the day and the something happens and you get so busy and caught up, yet by the end of the day you wonder what have you achieved? This one little tip has almost completely stopped this happening for me, immediately increasing my productivity. Even if an emergency comes up that is urgent and you need to address the task immediately, you will at least have more peace of mind because you know you are putting your time to the best possible use that you can.

If you have read this far, then I’m hoping this is of real value to you. I want to really help you implement these tips so I’ve included a bonus video that reviews 7 of the best tips I have for productivity to help you further. Enjoy!

Productivity Tip #11: Set Your Super Six The Previous Day
Every night, before you go to bed, or perhaps at the end of the day before you leave the office, review your goals and set your top 6 priorities for the next day. After a long day, this is often the last thing you want to get done but it is a proven productivity booster. By setting your top priorities the previous night, you can start your day with immediate momentum. While everyone else tries to settle into their day, you can begin being productive immediately. This tip has given me an extra 30 minutes to an hour every day. Imagine what an extra hour in your day would do for your productivity.

The second benefit is that you will sleep better. One of the major reasons for people not sleeping so well these days is they have so much going on in their head which they are trying to remember. If you have everything written down, you can go to sleep with peace of mind knowing that you won’t forget anything. As a result you will wake up better rested which will allow you to work at your optimum, allowing you to keep your productivity and output at their highest levels.

The final benefit is that your subconscious will go to work for you on your most important tasks while you sleep. I don’t know exactly how this happens but I just know it does. The number of times I have written down a challenge that I know I need to take care of the next day, only to wake up with the solution obvious to me is unbelievable.

Productivity Tip #12: Schedule Your Priorities, Just Like Setting Meetings With Yourself
Goals are great, but you need to schedule time to achieve them. Unless it is scheduled, it isn’t real. For example, one of my goals is to go the gym twice a week. If I don’t schedule that into my calendar, it becomes so easy for me not to go because something more pressing comes up. Let me assure you that something more pressing will always comes up when you don’t have your time scheduled. So now, when I look at my calendar and I see a 2 hour slot programmed for the gym, it means that I can’t schedule another meeting at that time.

Also, by scheduling your priorities (rather than prioritising your schedule which is what most people do), you will work your life around your major priorities and your goals. In the past I used to try and work my priorities and my goals around my life and it never worked. It was little wonder I would quickly fall behind and fail to achieve my goals. This is one of the major reasons why people fail to achieve their new year’s resolutions. For example, if your resolution is to start running 3 times a week and you don’t schedule it, then your normal routine will take over and nothing will change for you. So if you want to maximise your productivity, make sure you schedule your priorities.

Productivity Tip #13: Stick to Your Commitment
There is no point scheduling your priorities and making commitments to yourself, if you won’t keep them. I know several people who will tell me that they planned on running three times this week but then “stuff came up” and they never even went for a walk. They then complain about how they are so busy but they fail to realise that the main reason they are not as productive and falling behind on what’s important to them is their own inability to keep their promise to themselves and follow through on their commitment. This used to be me until I realised that I had to take control of my own life and start changing my own routine. Stick to your commitments and you will be amazed at how much your productivity increases.

Productivity Tip #14: Review Your Progress / Milestones
If you were driving to a new place for the first time, you would monitor your progress to ensure you were on track (or at least your satellite navigation system would). Otherwise, how would you know that you were on track? You need to do the same thing with your life. If you are not regularly “checking in” to ensure you are on track, it is so easy to just get busy without actually being productive.

I set my yearly goals then I bring them back to 90 day goals, monthly milestones and then weekly milestones. Every week, I spend about an hour reviewing whether I am on track or not. It won’t matter how organised you are, life will throw an unexpected curve ball at you from time to time, so by checking in with your progress, you will know what adjustments you need to make to get back on track again. Also, you will start to feel good when you realise that you are making progress every week. Nothing is better for productivity than knowing that the hard work you are putting in is paying dividend, so review and monitor your progress regularly.

Productivity Tip #15: Manage your state
There are times when you will feel lazy and you just cannot be bothered. During these times, you will need to manage your physical state and snap out of your laziness. Feeling lazy is an absolute productivity killer. How to snap out laziness and what you can do when you just can’t be bothered doing anything is something I will dedicate to another blog post. However, if you are feeling lazy, try and go for a walk, get some fresh air and some water. Do something to change your state, even if it as silly as jumping up and down in the same spot ten times – it might feel ridiculous and you might not be able to do it if you’re in the office surround by dozens of people, but it can definitely work. Otherwise do some stretching and just get moving. You’ll be amazed at how, once you start moving, within minutes your feelings of laziness have disappeared and you can get back into being productive again. 

So there you have it. 15 tips you can use immediately to take your productivity to levels even you can’t imagine. I promise that if you take the time to implement these 15 tips which will allow you to increase your productivity, you will feel more relaxed and have far more peace of mind.

If you have any further tips or you don’t believe some of these won’t work, please leave me a comment below. I’d love to get your feedback.

To your increased productivity and getting more out of life
Niro Thambipillay

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