The presentation has to be prepared, the offer has to be written. But one e-mail follows the other and the next meeting starts in five minutes. If you want to concentrate on one thing at work, it is sometimes difficult – and in the evening you may have a feeling: I haven’t done enough again. How depressing.
We would try to serve all requirements in the best possible way, forgetting “that we are not as effective as we can be” because we are constantly jumping back and forth, says business economist Linda Wulff, who works as a productivity coach . If you work on the presentation between two meetings and slip an email in between, you lose one thing in particular: the thread. And with that: time.
It takes about three to five minutes after an interruption to get back to the material, depending on the complexity of the task. “The level of attention that I’ve worked on drops back to zero,” says Wulff.
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And if you have the feeling that you can hardly cope with the work between three online meetings, you may write incoming e-mails during the meeting. The result: nothing really works. The mail has typos, the meeting brought nothing.
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You may not have noticed the most important part. “Multitasking kills productivity,” says business psychologist and coach Eva Schulte-Austum. “The time we think we’re saving we’ll have to invest later to make up for our mistakes.”
The experts agree on one thing: If you really want to concentrate on a task, you need as much undisturbed time as possible. And you get that by taking it. That means: make an appointment with yourself in the calendar – and defend it. So switch off everything else: e-mails, smartphone, chat program.
Reduce sources of interference in the workplace
Anyone who does this should of course get colleagues and superiors on board, ideally the whole team. “I think the main problem is that we forget to really talk to our colleagues about it,” says Wulff.
And if you have concerns now: It doesn’t always have to be an hour-long blocker in which everything stands still. According to the productivity coach, just four hours of concentrated work could make a difference in a 40-hour week.
If you don’t want to close the e-mail program completely, you can at least temporarily switch off the biggest sources of interference: notification tones for incoming messages, for example – or the pop-up window at the edge of the screen.
The business economist Linda Wulff works as a productivity coach
Source: dpa-tmn/—
Also important: the right timing. “Most people make the mistake of putting things that require concentration after lunch because they know that most jobs will calm down a bit,” says Wulff.
But that is exactly the time when you can often concentrate the least. The result: You distract yourself when no one else is doing it. So get out your smartphone and maybe check your emails.
Often more suitable for concentrated work: the morning or late afternoon, depending on the type. You should try that – and use the time after the lunch break for activities that are easy.
Make a daily schedule for the job
Anyone who is already blocking time should also know what it is for – and not get bogged down. According to Schulte-Austum, business psychologist helps here: “Make a clear plan of what the things are that have to happen today.”
She recommends a “traffic light system” for this: red for things that have to happen quickly, in any case on that day. Yellow for anything that needs to be done this week. Green for tasks that you always wanted to check off but are not urgent.
In this way, from a flood of tasks, those can be filtered out “that have a significant impact on the work, that help you advance,” says Schulte-Austum. “And that automatically makes you more productive.”
Eva Schulte-Austum is a business psychologist and coach
Source: dpa-tmn/Dieter Düvelmeyer
Linda Wulff also recommends what is known as “chunking”: you collect tasks that “all access the same context”. And works them off in one go.
Ultimately, the following applies: “Whenever we change the context, i.e. first work with one computer program, then with the other, then make a phone call, we need even longer to get our mind back on the task.”
If switching between tasks that require concentration cannot be avoided, telephone calls and the like are unavoidable, Schulte-Austum advises allowing yourself a short break in between, for example with a trip to the coffee kitchen. “Because exercise helps us to relax mentally and to get involved better with the new.”
shorten meetings
What doesn’t help in any case: letting yourself be sprinkled in front of the screen. After all, it is also in our own hands whether meetings bring anything or not.
“The most important question for every meeting, so that we can work productively, is: What is my goal, when is this appointment successful for me?” says Schulte-Austum. “That can be when I gain more information or when I come out with new ideas.” A decision that has been made can also be a goal.
And it is precisely such goals that you have to actively pursue in the meeting – instead of writing e-mails on the side. Useful for this: Briefly ask about the expectations of the individual participants at the beginning of the meeting.
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“Then you can see again, does everyone have the same goal? If not, who else do you have to pick up?” says Schulte-Austum. If colleagues or you digress in the meeting, a friendly reminder of that goal can help you stay on the ball.
A tip for a schedule full of meetings in a row: turn the time on the calendar. “There is no law of nature that says a meeting has to last 60 minutes,” says productivity coach Linda Wulff.
Despite this, meetings are often scheduled from one hour to the next. Instead, she advises “crooked” start times, around 10:20 a.m. “It usually helps that we have a little more preparation and follow-up time for the meetings.”
Write to-do list backwards
And in general: Not everyone has to go to every meeting. Clear agreements in the team help here – and an agenda. If an item on the agenda does not affect everyone invited, it can be placed in the margin. The result: more meeting-free time for the rest.
Tip: If you still have the feeling that you haven’t done anything in the evening, you can write the to-do list backwards – and list everything that you have actually done. This also includes the strenuous conversation with the customer: 15 minutes.
“Or to help the colleague who just didn’t know what to do,” says Schulte-Austum. “If we remind ourselves of that at the end of the working day, we go home with a good feeling.”
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