Pare Down the Piles

Into every career and life some rain must fall and, apparently, some piles will accumulate be they stacks of mail, reports, survey forms, seminar announcements, catalogs, etc. A basic step in managing information overload is to confront the piles head-on with a take-no-prisoners attitude. If you haven't noticed already, such piles can accumulate in a hurry. A couple of file folders, issues of a magazine, some office memos, something you clipped from the newspaper, a single day's worth of mail, some fliers left by your door, and POOF, you've got a pile!

Beware of Killer Piles – Piles, by their nature, tend to represent complexity and unfinished
business. Each pile in your visual field, i.e., that you encounter in any given day, registers in your brain, if only for a pico second at a time, as more stuff that you haven't really dealt with. Fortunately, there are ways to handle the ad hoc piles materializing a little too frequently in your life:

* Dismantle piles with relative grace. Have available a pen, some file folders, paper clips, rubber bands and a stapler. Now you're ready to collect everything on your desk or table or elsewhere that needs, or you suspect may need, attention. Stack all of it in front of you in a temporary pile. If the pile is high, your incentive to do so may be that much greater. In 30 minutes or less, you're going to dismantle and reallocate this simplicity-threatening pile. Allocate each item to one of four locations – an important pile, an urgent pile, an interesting pile, or the recycling bin, where most items will go.

* Allocate to the best of your knowledge. If an item is urgent and important, place it in the important pile near the top. If it's simply urgent, place it in the appropriate pile. If you are unsure of any particular item, place it at the bottom of the large stack, but only do so once for each item. On the second encounter, you have to classify it. In thirty minutes or less, the voluminous pile should be gone, and you're left with three semi-neat tiny piles. Rank the items and then re-arrange them in each pile. Downgrade or toss anything you can. You're left with three smaller, more precisely arranged piles, important, urgent, and interesting.

* Get meaner and leaner. What else can you chuck? What can be combined, ignored, delayed, delegated, done in multiples, armed-out, automated, systemized, or used for kindling? The more items you can downgrade to interesting, the farther ahead you'll be because you can deal with these items when you feel like it.

* With what's left, tackle items one by one. After you've identified the most important project or task at the top of the important folder, begin working on it. If you can't complete it, proceed with it as far as you can go. Then place it back in the folder, either on top or where you determine it now belongs. Similarly, begin on the next most important item and proceed
as far as you can go.

Boycott Multitasking

Just for today, give yourself the benefit of working on one thing at a time. You may have to switch gears, such as when the boss comes in, the important phone call comes through, or you receive a message that requires immediate action, but when you switch gears, switch them entirely: give your complete and undivided attention to the pressing issue at hand. All told, this is the most effective way to work and you'll be your happiest.

Meanwhile, if you notice yourself falling into patterns that resemble multi-tasking, try these solutions:

* Take a 15-minute break once during the morning, once during the afternoon.

* Don't eat at your desk, get away so that you can recharge your battery.

* Invest in equipment or technology that offers you a significant return, i.e. pays for itself within one year or less, and saves at least two hours a week of your time.

* Hold regular meetings with your team to discuss how everyone can be more efficient, without multi-tasking. Focus on the big picture of what you're all trying to accomplish. Often, new solutions to old problems will emerge and activities that seem urgent can be viewed from a broader prospective.

* Furnish your offices with plants, pictures, and art or decoration that inspires creativity and hold brain thinking.

Divide and Conquer

People are forever asking me how to handle the array of “stuff” confronting them. If you have six priority items competing for your time and attention, rank them #1 to #6. Then, tackle #1 all the way to completion, or as far as you can take it. Perhaps you have to give it to somebody else; maybe someone has to approve it or sign off on it. This should not hinder you from beginning #2.

Give each task your complete time and attention. Continue until you are finished. No method for handling six assignments is faster than the one that was just described. That is how you focus on the task at hand.