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Overcoming Overload?
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Posted by Ken
Mar 12, 2015 at 03:59 PM
Chris Murtland wrote:
I read something about military pilots experiencing “task saturation” in
>the cockpit - too many things competing for their attention at once.
>They overcome this by following checklists.
>
>Of course, designing the right checklists (and how often to go through
>them) to get you past the overload is perhaps not as obvious with
>knowledge work as it is flying a plane.
>
>Another tip, which I got from J. D. Meier’s “Getting Results the Agile
>Way,” but which I’ve also seen elsewhere, is to pick out the top three
>outcomes for each day and each week and to focus on these outcomes first
>rather than tasks. I also like his idea of “flowing value” rather than
>“burning backlog,” which means you focus on providing the most value to
>your stakeholders rather than just checking off as many tasks as
>possible.
>
>Also, it may be unpopular, but I’ve found that if I get super
>overloaded, I simply ignore a lot of things (and especially the overhead
>of “processing” all the things put onto my plate by others), and the
>truly important and urgent will keep coming back to me.
>
>Finally, I think the real productivity killer with overload is the
>increased decision-making overhead. You start to get the deer in the
>headlights syndrome where you can’t do much at all because you’re so
>worried about choosing the wrong tasks at the wrong times. There is
>something to be said for sometimes just cranking through as many tasks
>as possible in any random order (or any order that seems good in the
>moment) rather than spending any time deciding.
>
>Theory is always easier said than done, however. I would agree that the
>tools used can also introduce time overhead and friction. You don’t want
>to have to spend a lot of time entering in a bunch of field values for
>each task. Actual paper or Workflowy would probably be best for reducing
>data entry overhead. In Workflowy, you could take notes in outline form
>in a meeting and simply tag the action items at the same time - all as
>fast as you can type.
Many great points, Chris. I do rely on checklists in certain time-critical situations where making a mistake could be somewhat problematic. I find that you have to trust your checklist, and not try to outthink it. I have been knocking out big tasks, which are important as well, but as there are a number of large projects all trying to “get through the door” at the same time, I usually triage my time as I know that they all cannot make it through at once, but hopefully right behind each other, as they all cannot fit at the same time. I am probably going to give Workflowy a chance for a variety of reasons that I will try to touch upon below, but I do know that it is not the be-all, end-all solution to my problems.
—Ken
Posted by Ken
Mar 12, 2015 at 04:08 PM
MadaboutDana wrote:
I sympathise, I must say. As the director of an SMB who’s also heavily
>involved in day-to-day production, I have a ridiculously full task list.
>And yes, I do find it helpful to run stuff in parallel. I have a main
>task list I keep for putting things down in a reasonably structured way,
>then I have a ‘daily’ list that is really more akin to detailed notes.
>
>The apps aren’t really the point here, it’s the approach. My ‘formal’
>task list has everything in it, more or less organised by priority,
>sometimes by due date. But I try and avoid putting huge amounts of
>detail in there – it’s a tracking system rather than a full-on
>management system.
>
>Once I prioritise the tasks I’m going to do today, I jot them down in a
>separate note-taker (currently my favourite is Mindscope, but I
>regularly experiment with others - as you know!). This is where I keep
>details notes on what I’m doing during the day. But it’s also where I
>jot down fast-moving stuff that comes in during the day, so I can
>transfer it to my ‘formal’ list once I’ve reached a break in the flow.
>
>It may sound a bit clunky, but being able to focus on a short list of
>tasks (not more than today + tomorrow) while you’re actually working is
>a lot easier than being overwhelmed by a vast list of every task under
>the sun - keep them apart, I say! I’ve found this approach makes a huge
>difference to my sanity and organisation.
Thank you for being sympathetic. It is easy to wonder if we are just not performing fast enough, and a reality check with others is quite reassuring. The concept of running in parallel was what struck me yesterday, as I know that Asana is a task manager, and that is not an ideal place to store things that are not tasks. Running parallel requires a commitment to make it work, but even though Workflowy does not necessarily have everything I want, it’s layout and hoisting features may be what I need (he says with a nod to Mick Jagger).
—Ken
Posted by Ken
Mar 12, 2015 at 04:10 PM
Dr Andus wrote:
MadaboutDana wrote:
>>It may sound a bit clunky, but being able to focus on a short list of
>>tasks (not more than today + tomorrow) while you’re actually working is
>>a lot easier than being overwhelmed by a vast list of every task under
>>the sun - keep them apart, I say!
>
>Your post reminded me of these two Gingko blog posts by Adriano Ferrari,
>which are well worth reading in the context of this thread:
>
>“Two (silly) Techniques for Lasting Change”
>
>http://blog.gingkoapp.com/essays/two-silly-techniques-lasting-change
>
>“Decluttering your Extended Mind”
>
>http://blog.gingkoapp.com/essays/decluttering-extended-mind
Great articles to read when we get bogged down in the weeds. I enjoyed them, as well as the referenced one in the decluttering post.
—Ken
Posted by Ken
Mar 12, 2015 at 04:21 PM
Marbux wrote:
Some questions that might affect the recommendation:
>
>1. Is this a temporary problem or is it expected to continue, even get
>worse?
>
>2. Is there a budget for solving the problem?
>
>3. Is assigning an assistant (human) feasible?
>
>4. What operating system(s) are you using?
Unfortunately, I need to give short answers to these questions at the moment, but the detailed information that you provided was helpful, and I am going to give Notecase a better look this weekend if time permits.
1. My work flow ebbs and flows, and right now it is higher than it has been in some time. It should eventually reside to less than a crisis level, but I am usually running with a backlog of work even when things are slow.
2. We have a very limited budget, so I am not expecting any major changes in the next year or so.
3. My manager is trying to get some temporary help, but I fear it may be too little too late. My work is highly specialized, and there are only a few folks, who retired recently, who could step in with minimal training.
4. We are using Win7, but IT policies are very strict about “unauthorized” software being installed. I used up much of my capital when they let me keep Ecco on my machines. But when we migrated to Win7, that goodwill came to an end. So, it is either cloud-based solutions, portable apps, or using my own hardware.
—Ken
Posted by Marbux
Mar 12, 2015 at 09:02 PM
MadaboutDana wrote:
Very sensible thoughts. Of course Notecase (being Java-based) is also
>available for Mac…
Yes, for OS X. But it’s not Java-based. It’s written in C and uses the GTK+ libraries. So there are separate builds for each supported OS.