In my recent Ignite Seattle 12 talk, “5 Reasons Introverts Rock the Business World,” I called out different strengths that give introverts an edge. Of course, not all introverts possess all five, and some extroverts share them, so it wasn’t a one-size-fits-all characterization.
One of the strengths I chose to highlight was “depth over breadth.” Introverts generally have a special ability to stay focused for extended periods of time, as well as a preference to go deeper on a few things rather than stay shallow across many. It’s not unlike the way we form friendships; our circle of friends is usually small and intimate, and we have deep connections, whereas others have a wide range of acquaintances and more casual connections.
I generally thought this idea of depth over breadth held true for our ability to focus our time and energy. For some, maybe it does. I used to be able to keep my attention fixed on one activity for hours, such as writing, practicing my clarinet or reading a good book.
And then I became an entrepreneur.
With the ability to create my own schedule came the unprecedented capacity for wasting time. I don’t mean wasting time with things like Solitaire or watching re-runs of “The Office.” I mean multi-tasking, only partially finishing a project before jumping to the next thing, and allowing myself to spend too much time on a phone call, project or e-mail… or Facebook.
I know that a certain amount of distraction and randomness is always going to be with me. As someone who’s naturally curious, I follow fine threads to see where they go, and spend more time trying to connect distant but related dots. However, it’s also true that I could probably accomplish twice as much in half the time if I set an intention to stop multi-tasking and start focusing completely on whatever was in front of me.
When I shared my awareness with my business coach, he suggested I keep a work diary, detailing where my time was going. Great idea! I got a special notebook (of course!) and started my log. The first day was chaos. My time was so scattered, the log such a mess, I didn’t even know how to begin to record the raging randomness. Then the holidays came and I put the log away until after January 1.
The new year rang in with new intentions and new focus. I resumed my log and was starting to feel under control. So far, so good.
Then I conducted a podcast interview with Claudine Motto, a productivity coach based in Wellington, Florida. Among other things, she shared an online tool called Chrometa that tracks your computer usage. This I had to see!
After downloading the program, it started running in the background, tracking every click I made throughout the day. The first full day’s report came on January 12. It’s the first time I thought I was going to have a heart attack from looking at a spreadsheet.
This post’s featured image is just a snippet of that day’s report. It may be too small to read, so I’ll give you the punchline: over that particular 22-minute period, the longest I stayed active on any one thing was 2 minutes, 15 seconds. And I haven’t officially calculated it, but my guess is that the average time spent on each of the other activities was around 20 seconds.
That means that almost every 20 seconds, I was clicking to something else. Some of that happens naturally. For instance, as I write a blog post, I will click away to upload an image or check on a link I want to include.
Other clicks are inexplicable. Why would I be in the middle of updating a post then suddenly click away to MSNBC for 25 seconds then go to Facebook then go to e-mail?!?
I could go on and on about what my crazy day looked like, justify each and every click, and imagine how fast my coach will hit the ground when he faints upon seeing this mess. But that would just be wasting time.
Instead, I thought I’d offer a few ideas for staying focused, based on what Claudine shared in her podcast interview and my own experiences:
- I’ve heard that our ability to focus on a task diminishes greatly after 45 minutes. An effective way to structure the work day is to break it into 45-minute blocks, with a 15-minute break every hour. Get up, move away from the computer/phone/desk and do something completely different. It’s not time to mindlessly browse the web and see what’s hot on YouTube, Hulu or Yahoo; it’s time to stop whatever you’re doing – mid-sentence or mid-thought if necessary – and take a break.
- Use a digital timer. Claudine is a timer evangelist, preaching the power of setting a timer to get a realistic handle on where your time is going. Set it to count down as a way to stay committed to doing one thing at a time (for instance, set it for 45 minutes and during that time, do only one thing, such as finances or writing a blog post). Set it to count up if you want to see how long you’re really spending on Facebook (think it’s 10 minutes? Try 30!). Use the timer app on your smart phone, buy a digital timer or use one online like www.online-stopwatch.com.
- Set your priority list the night before. Create a reasonable (5 items, not 50) outline of tasks that you want to accomplish the next day, and include how long you estimate each will take… and then use your timer! One great idea came from Mike Michalowicz of The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur: for each item on your priority list, put a $ next to revenue-producing activities and a 🙂 next to the ones that would bring happiness to your customers or clients. Pretty simple, and great visual reinforcement of where it’s important to put your attention and WHY.
- Install Chrometa and see where your time is going. That first report will probably be a rude awakening (they show you a summary online, and you can export the full report to view the click-by-gory-click detail). Already on the second day of having it installed, I’d started to change my habits. Using the aforementioned timer, along with being mindful of how much I click away and allow distractions to pop up, I expect my report in a few weeks to be much less scary. (I used Twitter to a get an activation code from Chrometa.)
For more tips and insights into time and information management, it’s worth spending 37 minutes with me and Claudine on this week’s podcast. She also provided a fabulous resource list that will help speed up your quest for efficiency.
What’s your best productivity tip? Please share in the comments!
PS: This article is a fabulous read on how the internet is changing the way our brains work and affecting our attention span: “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” (July/Aug 2008 The Atlantic)… not that I’m blaming Google or anything…
Well. They do say awareness is the first step. Wow. What a fascinating post!
I've been paying a bit more attention to how I'm spending my time…and just reading your experience, I could guess how mine might look. I catch myself clicking away from whatever I'm working on all the time. The minute I get even slightly stuck in my writing, I have this overwhelming desire to make the rounds of outlook, reader and twitter. The latter being the worst offender because of all the interesting links to follow. I find it distressingly easy to spend 30 or 45 minutes on a quick break to clear my head.
The other day I tried something new. I felt stuck, so instead of cruising around online, I walked away from the computer and played Wii for about 20 minutes. Clarity emerged, I went back to my desk and wrote up a storm. I'm going to experiment with this some more. Maybe I'll use the timer, because it's easy to waste a lot of time playing Wii too.
The best thing I can do for my own productivity is to start writing first thing in the morning and delay doing any reading/surfing/online socializing for as long as possible.
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Beth, we're livin' the same world!
I love how clearly you lay out how some of us (ahem) go a million directions at once, seriously slowing us down. I'm pondering installing Chrometa myself… but feel a little leary. Whatever will I discover about my daily dalliances?!
Beth,
Thanks so much for the mention, and for sharing your insights and tips in this post.
Like Patty said, it does all start with awareness. But as with any tool, it's too easy to get sucked into (and stuck) in the analyzing – I love how instead, you shifted into what you can do to focus better.
Ultimately, that's what it's all about. It's using what you know about yourself and your habits to continually create a productive day. Or a productive next 15 minutes, or hour, if that's all you can handle that day (sometimes you really do need to just walk away and play Wii!). There is no perfect structure or tool or questions that fit everyone – every time – learn what works for you, stick to it, and take comfort in knowing nobody is productive 100% of the time.
Some structure helps, too – I wrote about one of my favorite ways to create some in your workday here: http://www.themindsetofsuccess.com/2010/08/winnin…. But ultimately, structure works only if you follow it…and there's nothing more powerful to bring yourself back to focus than to ask throughout the day "am I making the best use of my time right now?" (there goes that awareness again).
And yes, I am a timer evangelist! Aside from what you already mentioned, a timer can also help you figure out what your concentration threshold is. So set the timer for 45 minutes, but pay attention to when your mind starts to wander, or when you start to get fidgety – and over several days, see if it's around the same amount of time. Whatever your threshold is, honor it and go with it – you can always work on your focus "muscle" by gradually increasing it by 5 minutes at a time. The point: always do what works for YOU – for some people 45 minutes is just too long – which then discourages them from trying to unitask at all, when the problem is that they're not listening to themselves but trying to fit some ideal.
Claudine Motto
Business & Productivity Coach http://www.vistalnorte.com
I had to start laughing (to keep from crying!) since I started a time log a twice last year and heart attack doesn't begin to describe the shock I felt.
That said, I think my biggest insight is the realization that it takes me a gazillion times longer to complete a project (or phase of one) than I estimate.
Last week, I've begun using Charlie Gilkey's Productivity Planners, which have been surprisingly helpful in having a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly visual of what's happening and when.
As far as focus is concerned, Eben Pagan says that Multitasking lowers your IQ (which he defines as the "ability to process") in that moment 10 points, which (according to a study by The British Institute of Psychiatry) is equivalent of not sleeping for 36 hours.
Add to that the fact that when we are interrupted or distracted, it takes 20 minutes to get back to the point we were at before we were distracted, it make sense that entrepreneurs can find themselves at the end of the day wondering why they didn't get anything done.
The strategy Eben Pagan recommends is to work in uninterrupted focused blocks of time, like you describe Beth, and then at the end of every 90-to-120-minute cycle, unplug completed to allow the mind and body to pulse, relax and renew.
As for me, I'm thinking Adam Urbanski's suggestion to work in 25 minute focused bursts sounds more doable!
Thanks for the mention, Beth, and for sharing your insights and tips.
Like Patty said, it does all start with awareness – although sometimes we can get stuck in the analyzing – I love how instead, you shifted into what you can do to work more focused.
Ultimately, that's what it's all about – using what you know about yourself, your work habits, and your business patterns to figure out what creates a framework for a productive day for you.
Creating some structure in your workday is helpful too – I wrote about one of my favorite ways here: http://www.themindsetofsuccess.com/2010/08/winnin….
The thing is, though, that no structure, gadget, system or tool works for everyone 100% of the time – and none of them can make you *do* anything – that's why checking in with yourself throughout the day and asking questions that bring you back to reality, like "am I making the best possible use of my time right now?" can be the most powerful tool of all (we're back to awareness).
I *am* a timer evangelist! And I'll give you one more use for it: figuring out what your concentration threshold is. Like Tshombe said, 45 minutes can be too long. So set the timer for 45 minutes over a couple of days, but pay attention to when your mind starts to wander, or when you start to get fidgety. Whatever that time is for you, honor it and work with it – you can always work on your concentration "muscle" by gradually increasing the time by 5 minutes. The point is to always do what works for *you* instead of trying to fit some ideal.
Claudine Motto
Business & Productivity Coach http://www.vistalnorte.com
Thanks for the mention, Beth, and for sharing your insights and tips.
Like Patty said, it does all start with awareness – although sometimes we can get stuck in the “why” and the analyzing – I love how instead, you shifted into what you can do to work more focused.
Ultimately, that's what it's all about – being aware about what derails you, and then paying attention to your natural tendencies, how you like to work, and the patterns and demands of your business to create a framework for a productive day that is realistic for you.
And true to my being a timer evangelist 🙂 a timer helps you stay realistic when it comes to working in focused chunks, too. Like Tshombe mentioned, 45 minutes can be too long. So set the timer for 45 minutes over a couple of days, but pay attention to when your mind starts to wander, or when you start to get fidgety. Whatever that time limit is for you, honor it and work with it – you can always work on your concentration "muscle" by gradually increasing the time by 5 minutes. The point is to always do what works for *you* rather than try to fit some ideal.
Creating some structure based around the "move forward" activities in your business helps too – I wrote about one of my favorite ways here: http://www.themindsetofsuccess.com/2010/08/winnin…. But as I mention in the podcast, no structure, gadget, system or tool works for everyone or can make you *do* anything – that's why checking in with yourself throughout the day and asking questions that bring you back to reality, like "am I making the best possible use of my time right now?" can be the most powerful productivity tool of all (we're back to awareness!).
And we should all remember and take some comfort in knowing that nobody is productive 100% of the time – sometimes the best thing you can do to recharge your productivity is to just walk away and play on the Wii!
Claudine Motto
Business & Productivity Coach http://www.vistalnorte.com
Thanks for the mention, Beth, and for sharing your insights and tips.
Like Patty said, it does all start with awareness – although sometimes we can get stuck in the “why” and the analyzing – I love how instead, you shifted into what you can do to work more focused.
Ultimately, that's what it's all about – being aware of what derails you, and taking into account your natural tendencies, how you like to work, your workload and your goals to create a framework for a productive day that is realistic for you.
And true to my being a timer evangelist 🙂 a timer can help you set realistic chunks of focus time, too. Like Tshombe mentioned, 45 minutes can be too long. So set the timer for 45 minutes over a couple of days, but pay attention to when your mind starts to wander, or when you start to get fidgety. Whatever that time limit is for you, honor it and work with it – you can always work on improving your concentration "muscle" by gradually increasing the time by 5 minutes. The point is to always do what works for *you* because you will always accomplish more that way (rather than try to fit some ideal and get discouraged).
Creating some structure based around the "move forward" activities in your business helps too – I wrote about one of my favorite ways here: http://tinyurl.com/38vfkju. But as I mention in the podcast, no structure, gadget, system or tool works for everyone or can make you *do* anything – that's why checking in with yourself throughout the day and asking questions that bring you back to reality, like "am I making the best possible use of my time right now?" can be the most powerful productivity tool of all (we're back to awareness!).
And we should all remember and take some comfort in knowing that nobody is productive 100% of the time – sometimes, like Patty commented, the best thing you can do to recharge your productivity is to just walk away and play on the Wii!
Claudine Motto
Business & Productivity Coach <a href="http://www.vistalnorte.com” target=”_blank”>www.vistalnorte.com
Beth, I've decided to download Chrometa. Can say I'm genuinely nervous – no, curious! Curious! – to see how I fritter away my time.
Tsombe – fab resources; thanks! Will check them all out…
Lynn
I want a Wii! Sounds like the perfect strategy for me. Because moving on to another distraction is not the answer.
For me, social media tools are both a blessing and a curse. Being an introvert, I naturally gravitate toward them but they can become a black hole of 'unproductiveness.' Even though I favor depth over breadth, like many other introverts, I am also insanely curious and prone to all the "what if's."
You have encouraged me here to face the music, which is the first step in fixing things. Thanks for all these great resources, Beth. And it sounds like Claudine is full of good ideas. : )
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A Great Post Beth. You struck again my friend! I have a pit in my stomach just thinking about the report I might get back. Hokee Dinah!
What made me chuckle as I read your great list of a ideas on staying focused was that as a Speaker I know that my audience (adult learners) is able to stay with you for 50 minutes. Some groups you can push to 75 minutes before a break but there must be a lot of activity going on in the meantime. So why would I be any different? Right?
That is one call to action I will implement right away. I use my timer for projects work to keep me on task, now I am going to switch it up and use it to give me a break from task. Thanks for the reframe!
It sounds like we may be on a similar page with our lists too. I have always been 'anti-list' person. I make them, but was never wanting to be ruled by them. Well until this year when I started looking at what Expansion meant to me in life and business as that's my word for the year. One cannot expand if you do not know what you do each day in order to properly track results. I love my list and my little check boxes next to each item. I make mine up two days at a time. If something doesn't get done, it rolls over to the top of the next list and nothing else gets started before that is complete. It's going very well.
My productivity improves when I engage in what I know is most productive for me. This post helped to solidify that notion.
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This is an amazing post Beth. You hit my attention factors right on the button! I definitely follow threads but will pop all over during work if I don't have a very specific action plan.
I love the online-stopwatch website! It's a perfect tool to keep me focused (without having to split my attention between the task and a clock or stopwatch). It also gave me a good laugh because I clicked on your link to the site, played with it, and was ready to go back to your post but I had so many tabs open I had a hard time figuring out how to get back! LOL
Thanks for the clarification, validation and great tools.
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Beth – as I read your post, which is truly a labor of love and important information, I felt like grinding my teeth. I have a love/hate relationship with productivity tools. I want to be productive, but they always seem to be external structures that make me pay attention to them instead of tracking myself and what I need to be doing. Then when measurement time rolls around, I have more ammo to use against myself, rather than a nice way to pat myself on the back. But perhaps I am over reacting.
So I read all the comments. Ah, there Claudine said it: it's about finding what works for you and doing that. And there, Patty said: take breaks to clear your mind.
I sometimes work, and work, and work until I can't do any more and then I fall down and sleep. What is it about being an entrepreneur that makes it so hard to be satisfied with what I do – or what is it about me ??
My productivity system (does that make it sound more, um, valid?) is to plan my day and my week, and prioritize so I always know what my top tasks are to accomplish. That said, I don't operate by push button, and don't always perform as expected. Posting on my blog regularly has been goofy. When you look at the number of posts to weeks, it averages out fine, but I often go for a few weeks and then post two at the same time. I'm still sorting whether I think that's "acceptable" or not. For now it just is.
My other productivity system is named River. My lovely dog is very good at reminding me when it is time for a walk. If he fails to move me out of my chair, one of the cats will come and walk between me and the monitor until I stop and pay attention to her.
Another part of prioritizing: me. If taking care of myself is a priority, then I am more productive. And still one more: my concept of what I can realistically accomplish may be drastically unrealistic. Focusing and choosing what I will and won't do could save me a lot of time. But how do I know what to let go of unless I try it for a while?
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Great post, Beth! I felt like I was reading my own biography when I was reading this post. I have heard the stop watch trick a few times before this, so I think it might be time that I actually make myself do it! Sometimes, I have a hard time setting a time limit to things, especially blog posts, because I'm not sure how long to give myself to write it. Your post was really thoughtful on how to overcome these issues and stay focused.
I had another question. I noticed your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn share under your picture. Is this something that I can make standard on my posts?
Amanda
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