Media Outreach

If you are anything like me, I may be talking on the phone, receiving and responding to texts and emails, getting an IM, putting one person on hold to let the other important person know that you need 15 more minutes before you can meet and all with 15 uncompleted projects in opened windows on your machine waiting for you.  Wow, my heart rate and anxiety level just raised 15 notches by just typing that.  We have been programmed that you must do this and if you can’t do this you might need to rethink your employment options.  Maybe something with a union that will allow you to be the “hammer guy”.  You know, one focus, one thought process, and if you try to do the “screwdriver guy’s” job, you get reprimanded.

According to Maggie Jackson, the author of Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age, multitasking is not necessarily the ultimate in efficiency as we might have been lead to believe.  Maggie has said that multitasking supposedly,

“… allows us to perform several tasks simultaneously. But multitasking is most often about “task-switching,” hopping back and forth among several tasks in quick succession, never giving deep, full attention to any of them. It’s characterized by frequent interruption, and that makes it highly inefficient. Each time we’re interrupted — or we interrupt ourselves — it takes time to get back to where we were on a project” (Bielaszka-DuVernay).

On the other hand she also says that,

“… in the digital age we need to multitask at times. But we also need to revalue the skills of deep focus. What I’m really arguing is that we need balance” (Bielaszka-DuVernay).

We still need to,

“… make sure we’re allowing time for reflection, problem-solving, and innovation” (Bielaszka-DuVernay).

How can we make sure we’re allowing time for reflection, problem-solving, and innovation?  Surely we don’t believe that a culture of constant multitasking and interruption is what we need to start a church and maintain ultimate efficiency.  When we are in a staff meeting, we need to make sure that people aren’t mentally absent, checking emails, updating twitter, responding to the urgent.

I am a man, and as much as I would like to think I am multitasking efficiently, the truth is I am actually fostering a culture of lost threads, stunted thinking, and stress. I cannot afford to have ideas getting abandoned and forgotten before they have a chance to develop, all at the alter of the extreme adrenaline rush sport called task-switching

On the other end, we probably all have a to-do list system of some sort that we use.  Unless this is guided by a couple of principles, you will be at the same place as extreme task switching, frustrated and numb at your inefficiencies.

“We all have those dreadful tasks that stick around on our to-do lists forever” (Trapani).

You know, the thing that has to get done (like cleaning the garage), but we without doubt always find something more pleasant to do, like organize your DVD collection.

So that we don’t make a to-do list on how to make a to-do list effective, here are two easy guidelines that will help tremendously.

1. Take time to plan out the steps – “Then break it down some more.  Don’t confuse to-do’s with goals or projects. A to-do is a single, specific action that will move a project toward completion. It’s just one step” (Trapani). For example, Clean the garage is a project and Pick a day my wife and kids are able to help is a to-do. The to-do is bite size. Like the infamous Dr. Leo Marvin would say: “Baby steps, Bob, baby steps.” This provides a step in the right direction.  Then add the next small step.
2. Be specific – You’re overdue for getting the 501(c)(3) process started, but the “Contact a Lawyer” to-do just hasn’t gotten done. “When you write that task down, use an actionable verb (call? email?) and include whatever details your future self needs to check it off” (Trapani). By having a name, phone number, and possible times lined up on your list, you make the task manageable. It becomes “something you can get done while you’re stuck in traffic with a cell phone” (Trapani).

I hope this has helped and remember to,

“… walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” (Eph 5:15-16)

Concepts and statements for the article were taken from:
Bielaszka-DuVernay, Christina. The Dangers of Distraction.
Trapani, Gina. How to Write To-Do Lists That Work.

pic by fdecomite