Marthijn de Vries

The search for the best boundaries for productivity continues

· Marthijn de Vries

Last month, I wrote about the importance of setting boundaries in this day and age. I always get notifications, emails en calls, but how to you keep focused on the task for that day instead of taking in the the whim of the day.

I guess writing this post isfulfilling my promise to report back to you. In the last weeks I found out that my boundaries don’t work all the time. Giving collegueas an extra step to contact me, does work, but I still get (to much) distracted by day-to-day stuff. It’s in ‘my nature’ to get distracted fairly quickly, so when Coffee Digital will grow coming months/years, I need to know when and how to take control of my time and focus. Maybe I need to start optimize my focus, Instead of just blocking every distraction and hope for the best.

Nice to see you again, Leo

So, my quest continues. After some time on Google, I came across the blogpost from Zenhabits with the title: Working Effectively When You’re Overwhelmed. He writes about three ‘simple’ steps to be more effective. Fun fact about autor of this blog: Leo Babauta. I remember him from his interview in the first The Minimalist documentary, back in 2014.

Video: Leo Babauta in The Minimalist documentary

The Interstitial Pause

Basically, instead of switching from one task to the next, I recommend a pause.

  • If you answer an email, take a pause — do you want to keep answering emails, or is there something more important you’d like to do?
  • If you finish working on a task, take a pause — would you like to take a break, or choose the next task from your list to focus on.If you notice yourself automatically opening an app or website that’s a distraction, take a pause — is there something more important you’d like to focus on?
  • If you’ve just been given a bunch of messages and tasks, take a pause — add them to your list, and prioritize, choosing one thing to focus on (more on that below).
  • If you’ve been working for awhile, take a pause — would you like to stretch your legs, get some water, clear your head? This pause helps us navigate chaotic waters, and helps us to be more intentional about our day.

The Flexible Focus Method

This is a simple, time-tested method for finding effectiveness when things are chaotic:

  • Make a Short List: This is a list of 3-5 things you’d like to focus on for the day. Choose 3 things if they’re big ones, or if you have a day that’s full of meetings. Choose 5 things if they’re medium tasks. If you’re feeling optimistic, choose 6 things. Important: put them in order of importance.
  • Make a Long List: This is the list of everything else you’d like to do. Put things that are more urgent near the top. This long list is a “would be nice to do” list but you aren’t going to focus on it. Focus instead of the Short List.
  • Focus on the top task: Each day, focus on the top task on your Short List. Only on that. Nothing else. When you’re done with that, focus on the next item.
  • Dealing with interruptions & incoming tasks/messages: The beauty of this method is that it is flexible. If you are interrupted, you can simply return to the important task you were working on when you were interrupted, or pause and find something more important to focus on. If you having incoming tasks and messages, you can simply add them to your Long List … or if they’re important enough, put them on the Short List and knock something else onto the long list. Be flexible and allow yourself to adjust to a changing landscape.
  • At the end of each day: Take a moment to check things off and celebrate your accomplishments — then simply take the unfinished items on the Short List and add them to tomorrow’s Short List. Make your new list for tomorrow, so you know what to focus on when you get started.

Refilling Your Capacity

One of the biggest challenges when we’re feeling overwhelmed is that we are often drained and our ability to focus is lowered. We can’t take on hard tasks because we just don’t have the mental energy.

The practice to take on here is committing yourself to making self-care a priority. What do you need to do to get your mental energy where you want it to be in order to be effective and focus? If we can’t get this fundamental thing down, then we can’t create what we want to create in the world.

How you do keep in control of your workhours? Please let me know by sending me a email.

See you at the next one! 👋🏻

This post is part of my #100daystoOffload challenge. Post 6/100.