Pulled in too many directions?  Need more time to get everything done in a day?  Get more done in less time by using this invaluable time management technique called Chunking. For most of the US office workforce, we are bombarded each day, all day, with multiple tasks and items we have to juggle.  With the amount of communication tools out there such as email, IM, text, phones, and drop-in discussions, it is tough to get anything done!   Just look at e-mail: We spend hours every day reading, addressing, and organizing our e-mail.  Although e-mail has increased productivity by letting us communicate more often with more people, it has decreased productivity by breaking our work concentration when we are in the midst of a project. How often are you working on a project when you see your email notification pop-up, or hear that ding indicating a new email?  You see who it is from, and then read the email quickly to see if you need to address it, or if it can wait until later.  Even if it is a quick five-minute read, without any action needed, that five-minute email becomes a 15-minute time drain.  It pulls you out of your deep focus on a project, and you have to spend the mental time and energy to shift gears into reading and processing the email (five minutes).  Then, after you determine your action on the email, it takes you at least five to ten minutes to return to the same focus level you were at on your project.  If you only get ten emails throughout the course of the day that you handle this way, that’s 2.5 hours of wasted time! This same scenario is true of other interruptions we get throughout the day – phone calls, people dropping by to ask a “quick” question, etc. . . . This can make it impossible to manage your time! In the early 1960s there was a CEO of a major auto manufacturer in Detroit.  He would tell his secretary to take messages for all incoming phone calls and to let the caller know that he would be returning calls around 2PM each day.  This did a few things: 1) It allowed him to get a lot done during his day without interruption, because he set aside a block of time at 2PM to answer and return phone calls. 2) It trained others not to call him until 2PM in the afternoon if they wanted to get a hold of him.  He was using a technique that today is a key Time Management technique called chunking your time. Chunking is the process of setting blocks of time to address items.  Set aside a certain amount of time to work on a task or project, a certain amount of time for emails or conversations, etc., and do not let anything else interrupt you from that time.  This may seem counter intuitive in our technology-driven reactionary world.  We jump on our cell phones when we get a text, call, or email.   But by putting yourself in charge of your technology, rather than letting it control you, you will get more done and feel less stressed and fragmented.  Try these simple Chunking techniques to get some order in your life: Turn off all email alerts – That desktop alert that pops up and tells you there is a new email is one of the biggest time drainers. Turn it off, and then you decide when you want to check your email. Do not keep your email Inbox open and active on your screen all day. Schedule 30 minute blocks of times throughout the day when you are going to check and reply to emails.  When it is not one of those times, keep your email minimized. If you have an intense project to focus on, let all of your phone calls go to voicemail. Schedule a time in the day that you will listen to VMs, and follow up on calls. Put your cell phone on silent mode. Schedule times to look at your cell phone activity, and ignore it the rest of the day. Schedule times for calls or meetings for habitual interrupters. If there are people that pop in your office, or call you multiple times a day, schedule a daily or weekly meeting with them.  If they know there is a set time they will have your attention, they will be more likely to gather and hold all of their small items to bring to you at that time. These tips will allow you to spend the focused time on desired tasks and communications so that you can accomplish more in the same amount of time.  Test out the Chunking process by spending one day being reactionary to all incoming stimulus.  If the phone rings, grab it and address it.  If an email comes in, immediately answer it.  You will end your day feeling like you were extremely busy but that you didn’t get anything done.  The next day, try Chunking all of your time and activities.  Schedule times to work on email, times to return phone calls, and times to work on specific tasks or projects.  You will end the day feeling like you accomplished a lot, as well as addressed all needed communications. To learn more about this and other Time Management techniques, attend one of our Time Management classes.

Workers spend 41% of their time going through business email and find that 20% of that e-mail is non-urgent or important. It has also been estimated that workers loose at least 1 hour per day to “email interruptions.” In our Outlook Time Management class we learn a combination of Time Management and Outlook skills that can help you get the most from your day and better manage your calendar, tasks and e-mails. Please contact us for information on our Time Management training.

Most everyone could use a little more time to concentrate, but the unending barrage of emails, instant messages, tweets, Facebook updates, and other distractions can make finding that precious time very difficult. One technique for creating concentration space is chunking, or grouping similar tasks together. Chunking reduces the time needed for switching between tasks and encourages focus. Handling your email overload is a good application of this idea. Chunking emails Resisting the urge to stop whatever you are doing and scan an email as soon as the notification window appears can be very difficult. In writing this article I have read 7 emails (and counting), all of which interrupted my deep concentration and all of which could have waited another 20 minutes. Evolutionarily, this makes sense. Our ancestors couldn’t focus too deeply on the path in front of them, or they might miss the berries in their peripheral vision off to the side. Focus too much on the berry picking and you might miss the predator sneaking up. The email notification window is perfectly placed in your peripheral vision, and your brain responds like it just spotted some raspberries. You can’t help but open it. Disable incoming email notification in Outlook by clicking on File then options. Under theMail group, uncheck all of the boxes for Message arrival. The best practice is to turn off your notification window and reserve chunks of time for handling emails. Finding time for emails Decide how much time per day you want to spend reading and responding to emails. Then, divide that time by number of breaks you’ll need to check it. For some individuals, email may be the most important part of their job, and they need to respond very quickly if something important comes in. These poor souls might have 4 hours of email time and need to look at it once an hour. In that case, the chunks of time would be 30 minutes long. Other individuals may only need 1 hour of time and only need to look at it four times a day. These chunks would be 15 minutes long. However many chunks you have and whatever their length, schedule them on your calendar. Then resolve to check email only during those times. When you aren’t looking at email, you’ll be free to concentrate on whatever other tasks you like. For more information, please see our Time Management Class.

Choosing which demands on your time deserve your energy and redirecting yourself towards those tasks is an important time management skill. In our time management classes we recommend a tool for this called the “Brain Dump”. A Brain Dump is much like it sounds. It is a way to clean out all of the to-dos that have been floating around in your mind, taking your attention from the work at hand. Start by making a list of everything you need to do, or will need to do over the next month. Do not differentiate between personal and professional tasks or important vs. unimportant. Just write everything out without stopping. All of the brain hacking techniques, like using colored pencils, writing at strange angles, and using a stack of note cards apply. Just make sure it is as complete a list as possible. Once everything is out of your head, filter this list with this series of questions. Start at the top of the list and work your way down. Don’t move on until you’ve decided how to filter each task. Is it actionable? If a task is not actionable, it will fall into one of three categories. Trash- Throw it away and be bothered with it no more. Someday- If no action is required now but something may need to be done later, then the task should be stored away from your day to day work. A someday list of tasks retains the idea but prevents it from imposing on whatever is more pressing. Reference- If no action is required but the information could potentially be useful in the future, file it as reference. If an item is actionable, the next step is to decide if it is a project or a task. Projects Projects generally have more moving parts than tasks. Projects require a series of tasks and may have the complexity to justify project management techniques. Generally, the first two questions to ask with a project is, “What is the next action required?” and “What resources will I need to do that action?” These questions ferret out the first task in the project and what you will need to do that task. For example, the first task in the project of installing sprinklers is getting referrals for landscape designers from your friends, and the resource needed will be your Facebook account or your phone. Organize your tasks by the resources needed, so that if you have a spare moment with a smart phone, you can fill that time by calling your friends. Tasks If the item is too simple, short, easy, or common to be a project, then the next question to ask is, “Will it take more than 2 minutes to do?” If the answer is no, then just do it right away. It doesn’t make sense to spend more time organizing tasks than it takes to do them. If the answer is yes, it will take more than 2 minutes to do it, then delegate or defer it. Assign the task to the best person to do it, or put it on your task list. Learn more of these time management techniques in our Time Management Training Class. We also recommend reading Getting Things Done by David Allen Register for classes online, or contact our sales office for more information, including private group training, at (303) 900-8963, or [email protected]

If a task is not actionable, it will fall into one of three categories. Trash- Throw it away and be bothered with it no more. Someday- If no action is required now but something may need to be done later, then the task should be stored away from your day to day work. A someday list of tasks retains the idea but prevents it from imposing on whatever is more pressing. Reference- If no action is required but the information could potentially be useful in the future, file it as reference. If an item is actionable, the next step is to decide if it is a project or a task. Please contact us for information on our Time Management training.

Groups, just like individuals, have time management habits and skills. A group’s collective time management skills affect the members of that group in positive and negative ways. Groups with a good collective time management culture are effective in the same way that individuals with good time management skills are effective. A good time management culture encourages group members to use their coworker’s time and their own time effectively. These skills include prioritizing, minimizing distractions, and focusing on results. Maintaining good time management habits as an individual can be more difficult in a group with a bad time management culture that accepts or even encourages constant interruptions. Promoting more effective group habits helps individuals be more productive. Group Distractions The most common group distraction is unnecessary or unsuccessful meetings. Hall-jacking coworkers is commonplace for some businesses, while others plan their meetings thoroughly with pre-meeting meetings, or long email chains settling the agenda to the minute. Agree upon a company standard as to what types of things warrant hall jacking as opposed to what needs to be planned in detail for a meeting, so everyone works consistently in the culture. Controlling Meetings with Working Agendas A working agenda is a good way to avoid both under and over-planning meetings and improve a group’s collective time management culture. As a meeting starts, go around the room to get everyone’s input on what topics should be covered. Write the list on a white board so that everyone can see it. Then, start at the top, and work down. If someone brings up a topic off the list, stop the conversation and write it out at the bottom of the list. This keeps the meeting on track, let’s the participants know how many topics are left, and shows that everyone’s priorities are important. Limiting Excessive Emails If you’ve ever wondered if we would have all been better off without email, the answer is yes. But unfortunately, the cat is out of the bag, so we need to learn how to deal with it. Just as individuals can use a number of Time Management techniques to control email, groups can set collective time management standards to control the Tsunami as well. Here are 5 quick rules for controlling email. If there are more than 4 emails in the chain, pick up the phone. If more than 4 people are carbon copied on an email, call a meeting. Use bullets if you have more than one request in an email. Use 100 words or less. Instead of sending 20 update emails a day, add your updates to one draft email, and schedule it to go out at 5:00. Creating a Good Collective Time Management Culture The first step in solving any problem, is admitting it exists. Start by building a consensus in the group that there is room for improvement. Avoid singling out people who struggle more than others. Instead, set standards for the entire group to follow and then apply those standards to their behavior. Along with the email rules above, here are some other examples: If only one person in a meeting is talking, it’s an announcement, not a meeting. Write a memo. List 3-4 quick questions before knocking on a coworker’s door and interrupting her train of thought. Ensure everyone invited to a meeting knows what will be covered, what they need to bring, and why they were invited. Make it ok to say, “I’m sorry, but I’m too busy to talk right now.” Crack down on being late. It literally saves time. Culture changes with persistent effort over time. A collective time management class may be a catalyst to begin that change, but it rarely solves the problem completely. Keep up the pressure by bringing it up in staff meetings and circulating time management articles. See our Time Management Training Class for more information.