Do less with more focus
When we're feeling stressed and overwhelmed by the seemingly endless rotation of tasks and responsibilities that life is throwing at you, the last thing you'd think would be to do less.
Most of us are so busy looking at all we have to do that we hardly take the time to focus on what needs to get done. Once you've decided what to work on--that is, once you've chosen the highest-impact task--get to work on that task and focus on it completely. Reflect on what needs to get done, and then focus until it's done. Don't let yourself get distracted.
Don't let your thoughts wander--do what you have to do until it's complete, and you'll find yourself with one less thing on your list. Concentrated focus gets more work done than multitasking.
Why Doing Less Actually Accomplishes More
1. Do 5 things each day.
When our to-do lists are pages long, it's pretty much guaranteed that we aren't going to reach the bottom of them. We end the day feeling unfulfilled, pulled in multiple directions, distracted, and no more accomplished than we were at the start.
That's why Laura Vanderkam, author of "Off the Clock" and "168 Hours," says you should focus on just doing 5 tasks each day. "If you've got 20 things on a to-do list, you won't do them all, and who knows if the five you did do were the most important?" she tells me. "There is no virtue in putting something on a to-do list and then not doing it. The item is just as not-done as if it wasn't on the list. But now you feel bad about it! This is the worst of all worlds.
She explains that if you only do 5 each day, you're doing 25 a week, and 1,250 a year, which is significant. Try getting a dry erase board on which you specifically write your tasks for the day, to keep yourself focused. Make sure the first is the most important, and that you put all of your time and energy into accomplishing the first before you move to the second. If you don't get to the fifth? Well, put it at the top of the list the next day.
2. Swapping between tasks makes you less likely to complete any.
Though multitasking has previously been considered the gospel of productivity, advancements in neuropsychology have helped us understand that it's actually not the most effective way to manage your time and focus. "We're most effective when we're doing two things: picking only a few really important tasks to do each day, and focusing on one task at a time rather than constantly switching between everything," Leo Babauta, the creator of Zen Habits, explains. "Doing less is a game-changer because it forces us to focus on what really matters, rather than churning through busywork and messages."
3. It's not about doing less, it's about focusing more.
For those who are still not convinced that doing less will result in actually getting more done, consider this: it's not about actually having less on your plate, it's about allowing your mind to focus on one task at a time so that you can actually complete things fully and well. From there, you can built momentum to go onto the next task. Overloading your to-do list and overwhelming your brain is not forcing you to perform faster, it's ensuring that you're actually accomplishing less than you would if you only gave yourself a few tasks per day.
David Allen, the author of "Getting Things Done: the Art of Stress-Free Productivity," tells me that it's about giving things your full attention. "Your mind needs rest and free space, regularly, to function at its best. But if it's overloaded with commitments inappropriately managed, its capabilities are seriously sub-optimized, for creative thinking and decision-making," he says. "Whatever has your attention needs to be captured, clarified, the resulting content parked in a trusted external system, and all of that reviewed regularly if you want the clear space in your head to engage with what's most meaningful to you, in the moment."
The reality is that trying to take on more tasks throughout the day without a strategy to complete them does not make you more accomplished, successful, or productive. If you write down 30 things you need to do, you probably will only get to the first couple, and because you're overwhelmed, you're not going to do them well. If you pare it down to the top five, you're going to be prioritizing the most crucial tasks of the day and giving them your full and complete attention.
Here at Inbloom, we are offering an Online Productivity and Mindfulness Course to accomplish more. Simply email us!
Reference:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/briannawiest/2019/02/20/3-productivity-experts-explain-why-doing-less-actually-accomplishes-more/#22267fda68cd