Mental Radar

Remember when we talked about Focus? And how doing just one thing, rather than jumping between multiple ones, would get things done faster? It sounds good, right? And logical?

Be honest–how many windows do you have open on your computer right now?

I’m guessing there’s a word processor, an email client, and (if you’re anything like me) multiple internet browsers/tabs open, all at the same time, tuned in to different web pages. Maybe a forum, maybe Twitter. Maybe Google Analytics. I fully admit that I spend a lot of my time hopping from one to the next–touch-up my logo in Adobe Illustrator, work on my mailing list in Excel, write a few paragraphs of a blog post, check my email, work on my mailing piece, check Twitter … yet, nothing gets done. As in, completely finished.

Yet … here’s the flip side to that “Focus on One thing” argument … everything is at least getting touched. And the smaller jobs are getting finished altogether. Here’s why.

I hate clutter.

Not just the kind that clogs up your desk, until you can barely see your pen cup and the mouse pad has shrunk to about 3 square inches of real estate. (Though that truly gives me the heebie jeebies.) My father has always had crowded desks like that, but, honestly, I can’t function at all like that. It’s not just the mess of papers and things, either.

I’m talking about the Mental clutter.

I don’t know about you, but when I’ve got 1 or 2 jobs to do, I can focus pretty well (so long as I can resist the pull of Twitter and email and the computer is moving along at a good pace). But when I’ve got 5 or 7 or more jobs all going at once? It doesn’t matter if some are more urgent than others–if they’re sitting there, waiting, they’re ALL taking up mental space and distracting me.

You know that kind of built-in radar that Moms have, so that they can tell when their kids are about to pull down shelves in the next room? Or that lets them know where their kids are on a playground, even if they’re not actually looking at them? Even though they’re not giving their kids their full attention–they might be carrying on a conversation, or knitting a sock, or talking on the cell phone–their child is still on their radar. They’re still paying attention–just not ALL of their attention.

That’s mental clutter.

If I have five jobs sitting on my desk and they’re going to take an hour, 30 minutes, 15 minutes, 10, and 5 to do–I’m going to do the 5 and 10 minute jobs first. Because then they’re DONE, off my desk, and out of my mental-radar zone.

That leaves me just three jobs and it only took me a quarter hour. It’s the difference between supervising a slumber party and providing snacks to your two kids with one best friend. If you then take another quarter hour and do that 15-minute job … in just half an hour you’ve chopped your To Do list by 60% and are down to a “comfortable” two-kid radar level.

It’s true, of course, that you’re left with the two biggest jobs–but here’s the thing. Since they’re the biggest and probably the most complex, they are the jobs you need to concentrate on the most. By getting the piddly ones out of the way, you have fewer distractions.

Obviously, this doesn’t help when all the jobs on your desk are roughly equal in size and complexity. Then you need to look at things like deadlines, urgency, how long they’ve been waiting–stuff like that. And then, pick one and work on it.

Because this is not about multi-tasking–it’s about efficiency.

If some of your jobs can be cleared away completely with just a modest effort? I say go for it. Because, I don’t know about you, but when my mental radar looks like an air traffic controller’s worst nightmare, I not only lose focus, I start dithering.

And, really, who wants that?

(Just, um, remember to turn Twitter off before you start. I mean, really, you want to talk about distractions…)

What do you think folks–is this just me? Or do you have this problem, too?