Why Are You Driving Yourself Crazy?

I was going to write about the topic of position in range today, but then I ran into an article that made me stop and pay attention. Thought it might do the same for you.  It is written for execs but us lesser humans struggle with the same problems, too.

INFORMATION OVERLOAD!!!! Our daily burden is more than a pain in the neck. It literally makes us unhappy and anxious. I figure that makes information overload something I need to wrestle to the ground, because it's affecting not just my productivity but my ability to create (strongly linked to job satisfaction and to generally feeling at home in the world). 

I'm referring to a January, 2011 article from the McKinsey Quarterly called, "Recovering from Information Overload". You may have heard some of this before, but the starkness of the report impressed me -- hopefully -- into changing my ways. See what you think.

• The mind is built to work at one thing at a time. They're telling me that multitasking slows me down. When I switch between tasks, especially complex ones, I become inefficient. The delay occurs because the brain must turn off the rules for the old task and turn on the rules for the new one. [MO'H: So that's why I have to take a break around 4:00!] Heavy multitaskers take even longer to switch between tasks!!
• I am making myself less effective! "One might think that constant exposure to new information at least makes us more creative [MO'H: I know I did!] . . . the likelihood of creative thinking is higher when people focus on one activity for a significant part of the day and collaborate with just one other person. Conversely when people have highly fragmented days -- with many activities, meetings and discussions in groups -- their creative thinking decreases significantly."
• I can become addicted to information overload.  The research is starting to point that way. 
• I am making myself unhappy at work and taking it home with me, too. Here's no surprise -- multitaskers show higher levels of stress hormones, with their information overload lessening job satisfaction and undermining relationships.

Not that it has to be this way. If I focus on staying clear, come eyeball to eyeball with the new habits I need to develop, I can own this change and make better decisions.

Here are some examples, One CEO sees his workday as a interesting intellectual buffet and he has to be careful not to over eat. He seeks out the more important topics and it helps him create focus.  Others schedule alone time during the day and insist on keeping it -- a strategy I strongly recommend to everyone who has problems juggling. Even if you just start your day with 30 minutes of dedicated alone time. Or if you are in the midst of designing new programs, make it at least an hour. Don't kid yourself. You need to switch everything, and I mean everything, off. Quiet time is what we're going for here.

There are many other executive suggestions in the article that you can adapt to your own challenges with a bit of thought. And don't think the execs make it sound easy. They talk candidly about how difficult it has been for them to make these changes. They admit that the shifts they made didn't make them immediately popular.  And they advise that you'll have to change others' expectations of you which, as we all know, can be even harder than changing bad habits. 

Truth. I believe that me, my relationships and my work will improve from changing my multitasking ways. Less crazy, more happy, better ideas. To me, they sound like they are worth working for. Why not take some a New York minute to put your own list together?

Truth. There are some days when I multitask and have fun doing it. You do, too. So, let's take a close look. Are you dealing with those days effectively? If the answer is yes, then you may have found that multitasking can stand up to certain types of work. But recognize that on days when you have substantive decision making to accomplish before you go home, you have to create a schedule that involves time to focus without distractions.

So, looking at the facts at hand, if I face every day bathing in the information onslaught instead of creating focus for myself  -- no matter what I am working on -- I am not going to do my best work. I need to face it. 

I'm betting you do, too.

Margaret O'Hanlon is founder and principal of re:Think Consulting.  She has decades of experience teaming up with clients to ensure great Human Resource ideas deliver valuable business results.  Margaret brings deep expertise in total rewards communication to the dialog at the Café; before founding re:Think Consulting, she was a Principal in Total Rewards Communications with Towers Perrin.  Margaret earned her M.S. and Ed.S. in Instructional Technology at Indiana University. Creative writing is one of her outside passions, along with Masters Swimming.

Comments

[Paul]

Correction - The McKinsey Quarterly article, Recovering from information overload, was published January 2011.

[Margaret O'Hanlon]

Thanks, Paul. Must have been multitasking at the time.