I remember my dad, who worked in a factory, having an enduring curiosity about the lives of office workers. He thought they lived in a sort of magical place where people were always clean and wore nice clothes. It was different from the factory, I guess, which was full of gnarly blokes in stinky boiler suits, all swearing and snarling at each other all day.
I’ve inherited some of that curiosity from him. Mostly because I work for myself, without any kind of supervision, and so I have no external constraints. I think the buzzword or the jargon term or whatever is “scaffolding“. It’s why I’m constantly pondering workflows and time management and stuff like that. I sometimes think it might be easier if I had an editor or a publisher standing at my shoulder, whacking me in the back of the head with a rolled-up newspaper.
So I’m asking you, or those of you with real jobs in proper offices, how the hell do you do it? How do you juggle all of the things? I don’t mean life and work balance. I mean, if you’re working on half a dozen projects at once, how the hell do you do that? Because I’ve decided that I can’t. For me, multitasking is bullshit.
For the last couple of years, I’ve tried to manage my workload by designating the main thing I’m working on as my primary project, and the second most important or urgent thing as the secondary project.
I came up with all of these complicated schemes for structuring my day so that the primary project got, say, 80% of the work, and the secondary project got 20% of the work, and somehow—out of nothing—I spun up enough time to do all the other things like answer emails and do admin and write the occasional blog post.
Yeah, nah, none of that worked.
In the end, I can’t escape the brute reality that I’m going to be more productive if I work on one thing at a time.
But there’s always hope!
So if anybody out there with a normal job juggling a bunch of competing deadlines has any secret productivity sauce, I’ll happily take the recipe.
You already have the greatest advantage Mr. Birmingham, no meetings. Meetings are the scourge of productivity. 2 hours spent in a room listening to people complain they have no time and are too busy with nobody seeing the irony, but I digress.
Win the small battles first so they don't weigh on your mind and provide a distraction. The four Ds of email work for me:
Do it if it can be done quickly,
Delegate it if you can,
Date it if it will take more time and allow enough time in your calendar to finish it,
I was thinking about this the other day. But its become apparent that the more qualified i became, the less and less I do , and the pay just went higher and higher. The first 3 months of a new job are fantastic , super busy , jobs done . Then the exetensial dread kicks in and I'm in an episode of Reggie Perin. I've had jobs where I have worked physically hard like labouring and pizza making , loved it but the pay was so bad I had to leave. But office work is mostly bizzare and pointless. Do more work, well you run out of work, ask for more you get frowned on and the manager acts like you should generate your own work. Like you're in sales. So you do less and dick around on the internet, and then get frowned on for wasting time, for tasks that take 10 minutes. From there processes are invented to lengthen simple tasks to avoid making a decision, enforcing laws , making real change, saving money. So you wait for meetings, plan themed morning teas, organise child care , holidays and never ever question what ever your idiot manager is doing when they are 'working from home' and answer every phone call with 'sorry mate, so busy, really flat tac here' and develop an unhealthy relationship with alcohol.
IME there's a heap of variety in "office jobs". Some jobs you get to sit and focus on one or two things at a time - think technical SME. Similar to what you do. These require a bunch of focused effort on discrete chunks of stuff, and that absolutely works better sequentially. Anyone trying to multitask that is gonna do a shit job.
And there's roles like mine, where I've got so many different objects in the air - balls, cubes, knives, flaming shit - that I'm constantly context-switching. As I've hit middle age and my brain has started to significantly decline I've had to build out tooling to help me capture all the states, cos it just falls out of my head now.
The search for the One True Tooling is a never-ending quest. And one that is indelibly linked to undiagnosed ADHD tendencies.
1. Multitasking is absolutely bullshit. Prioritising isn't, though.
2. How do you know what your priority is? That's easy. It's whatever you think is the most important. How do you know if that thing as the same as what your boss thinks is the most important? Ohhhh, that's much harder. There's the secret sauce that everyone wants and will truly make you a squintillionaire.
3. How do you get it all done? The same way you eat an elephant.
And I'm writing this and still getting paid, so something must be going ok.
Dave has pretty much nailed it, there is no such thing as multitasking. Prioritisation is where it is at and as Jocko would say "prioritise and execute". The trick is not to get distracted while executing.
Prioritisation is often a challenge because people struggle to break things into components for prioritisation. They mix a bunch of topics together and then try and fix them all at the same time and wonder why they fail. The first step to prioritisation is to break things down to the right level where they can be assessed, quantified and then prioritised. Rather than panic and try to run in 20 directions at once.
The questions I ask myself for prioritisation:
1. Does it effect my bonus?
2. Does it bring tangible value to our core business?
we are motivated by our KPIs. makes things real simple. and fuck multitasking.
I'll ignore you all day till I finish the task at hand that matters. you could be standing next to my desk (if I ever went to the office ) with your hand cut off and blood streaming out. I would tell you to piss of and find a towel, don't bother me till the task is done.
Not everyone would agree with the order that you've got this list in, though. Not me, of course, I'd never prioritise bringing a world of pain upon my enemies. Never.
I use a whiteboard with the projects listed with deadlines and swipe em off when they are done so i have a visual representation that i'm actually getting somewhere. Then its just a matter of paying attention to the one with the highest priority (or squeakiest wheel) at the time. Its really just chaos in those super busy times - multitasking is a crock of shite invented by some wonk who wants to grind you down and gaslight you.
I can’t recommend highly enough Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks. You’re not going to get it all done. Once you realise the deck is stacked, a huge weight is lifted off your shoulders.
This makes me happy. Burkeman describes himself as a reformed "productivity geek" and a former practitioner of the pomodoro technique, and countless other supposed productivity hacks. I think he concludes that all that happens when you run faster and faster on the hamster wheel is that the wheel speeds up and you're just more frazzled and buggered during your (if you're lucky) 4000 weeks.
"For me, multitasking is bullshit." you are as usual correct. Multitasking is bullshit. For me the advantage is I have stuck at the same public sector employer for over 20 years. I have worked my way into a technical position where I do not manage people, but I answer to managers and senior managers who when they are told by directors (who are regularly replaced) who don't know how to do what they want or even if want they want is possible but are easily distracted by the next brightest shinny program.
So when I am told do this its the top priority by a director, other manager etc I get them to tell my team leader in writing and I do that, a quickly and competently as I can after documenting the issues and time it will take. Then when the next 'absolute top priority' task needs to be done, I asked the to tell my team leader in writing that, and I start doing that and try to finish the previous whilst I am waiting for them to change their priorities AGAIN.
I get the tasks done, when I can get them done. I make sure I adhere to every ridiculous edict/procedure/guideline that is recorded, make sure I am present and seen the required number of days in office, complete every required training program specified by my manager, director, and CEO, know the Enterprise Bargaining agreement chapter and verse, ensure I build up my flex to the maximum allowed, take flex days, blood leave days, holidays etc as specified and the minute I finish my work day clock off and never worry about work when I am not working.
Define multitasking I guess. I certainly context switch quite dramatically, even within an hour. I have 4 small teams - Support, Platform, API Dev and a niche statement team. Context switching between API Development and say, On Premise infrastructure, can almost lead to devastating decisions and chaos. I think my forte is putting together high performing and cohesive teams. If I do this, my job is a breeze most of the time. I just remove obstacles for them as required which can require some multitasking at times.I'm afraid this doesn't help at all in your sole trader business JB....
Like some others I have a few matters going at any one time, I just pick out the most urgent, or the one that has some info just come in that I've been waiting on, or if all else fails (waiting on external providers for instance) I look out for the easiest task to complete! I have found (as you have) is at the start of the day I may make some notes/a list about what to do that day. And sometimes I just have to drop everything for a period and do that urgent thing that just popped up now...
You won’t get much help from me. I have to do one major project at a time otherwise I get concepts competing and overlapping, which is pretty much fatal for a patent search. Even two searches in a row with similar subject matter is bad, and needs to be broken by something more mindless. That said, a small two minute job can always be accommodated in the middle of a larger job because it doesn’t interfere brain wise and I do need to have mini breaks.
I read somewhere that multitasking is impossible based on how our brains function. Even if we are doig many tasks we are always doing them one task at a time.
Yes, there is a name for it. Some German guy discovered the idea of “attention residue’ so it’s named after him. But attention residue is pretty good too.
You already have the greatest advantage Mr. Birmingham, no meetings. Meetings are the scourge of productivity. 2 hours spent in a room listening to people complain they have no time and are too busy with nobody seeing the irony, but I digress.
Win the small battles first so they don't weigh on your mind and provide a distraction. The four Ds of email work for me:
Do it if it can be done quickly,
Delegate it if you can,
Date it if it will take more time and allow enough time in your calendar to finish it,
Delete it if it does not provide value
The freedom of an empty inbox is astounding.
"You already have the greatest advantage Mr. Birmingham, no meetings. "
So true. I am aware of this.
I was thinking about this the other day. But its become apparent that the more qualified i became, the less and less I do , and the pay just went higher and higher. The first 3 months of a new job are fantastic , super busy , jobs done . Then the exetensial dread kicks in and I'm in an episode of Reggie Perin. I've had jobs where I have worked physically hard like labouring and pizza making , loved it but the pay was so bad I had to leave. But office work is mostly bizzare and pointless. Do more work, well you run out of work, ask for more you get frowned on and the manager acts like you should generate your own work. Like you're in sales. So you do less and dick around on the internet, and then get frowned on for wasting time, for tasks that take 10 minutes. From there processes are invented to lengthen simple tasks to avoid making a decision, enforcing laws , making real change, saving money. So you wait for meetings, plan themed morning teas, organise child care , holidays and never ever question what ever your idiot manager is doing when they are 'working from home' and answer every phone call with 'sorry mate, so busy, really flat tac here' and develop an unhealthy relationship with alcohol.
"But office work is mostly bizzare and pointless."
I've often suspected this.
IME there's a heap of variety in "office jobs". Some jobs you get to sit and focus on one or two things at a time - think technical SME. Similar to what you do. These require a bunch of focused effort on discrete chunks of stuff, and that absolutely works better sequentially. Anyone trying to multitask that is gonna do a shit job.
And there's roles like mine, where I've got so many different objects in the air - balls, cubes, knives, flaming shit - that I'm constantly context-switching. As I've hit middle age and my brain has started to significantly decline I've had to build out tooling to help me capture all the states, cos it just falls out of my head now.
The search for the One True Tooling is a never-ending quest. And one that is indelibly linked to undiagnosed ADHD tendencies.
Yeah, I'll go first.
1. Multitasking is absolutely bullshit. Prioritising isn't, though.
2. How do you know what your priority is? That's easy. It's whatever you think is the most important. How do you know if that thing as the same as what your boss thinks is the most important? Ohhhh, that's much harder. There's the secret sauce that everyone wants and will truly make you a squintillionaire.
3. How do you get it all done? The same way you eat an elephant.
And I'm writing this and still getting paid, so something must be going ok.
Dave has pretty much nailed it, there is no such thing as multitasking. Prioritisation is where it is at and as Jocko would say "prioritise and execute". The trick is not to get distracted while executing.
Prioritisation is often a challenge because people struggle to break things into components for prioritisation. They mix a bunch of topics together and then try and fix them all at the same time and wonder why they fail. The first step to prioritisation is to break things down to the right level where they can be assessed, quantified and then prioritised. Rather than panic and try to run in 20 directions at once.
The questions I ask myself for prioritisation:
1. Does it effect my bonus?
2. Does it bring tangible value to our core business?
3. Does it help someone I like?
4. Does it screw someone I don't like?
Excellent update to the Eisenhower Matrix!
this.
we are motivated by our KPIs. makes things real simple. and fuck multitasking.
I'll ignore you all day till I finish the task at hand that matters. you could be standing next to my desk (if I ever went to the office ) with your hand cut off and blood streaming out. I would tell you to piss of and find a towel, don't bother me till the task is done.
Not everyone would agree with the order that you've got this list in, though. Not me, of course, I'd never prioritise bringing a world of pain upon my enemies. Never.
I use a whiteboard with the projects listed with deadlines and swipe em off when they are done so i have a visual representation that i'm actually getting somewhere. Then its just a matter of paying attention to the one with the highest priority (or squeakiest wheel) at the time. Its really just chaos in those super busy times - multitasking is a crock of shite invented by some wonk who wants to grind you down and gaslight you.
I can’t recommend highly enough Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks. You’re not going to get it all done. Once you realise the deck is stacked, a huge weight is lifted off your shoulders.
Checking it out right now!
This makes me happy. Burkeman describes himself as a reformed "productivity geek" and a former practitioner of the pomodoro technique, and countless other supposed productivity hacks. I think he concludes that all that happens when you run faster and faster on the hamster wheel is that the wheel speeds up and you're just more frazzled and buggered during your (if you're lucky) 4000 weeks.
"I’m constantly pondering workflows and time management and stuff like that" there are probably books about that.
"For me, multitasking is bullshit." you are as usual correct. Multitasking is bullshit. For me the advantage is I have stuck at the same public sector employer for over 20 years. I have worked my way into a technical position where I do not manage people, but I answer to managers and senior managers who when they are told by directors (who are regularly replaced) who don't know how to do what they want or even if want they want is possible but are easily distracted by the next brightest shinny program.
So when I am told do this its the top priority by a director, other manager etc I get them to tell my team leader in writing and I do that, a quickly and competently as I can after documenting the issues and time it will take. Then when the next 'absolute top priority' task needs to be done, I asked the to tell my team leader in writing that, and I start doing that and try to finish the previous whilst I am waiting for them to change their priorities AGAIN.
I get the tasks done, when I can get them done. I make sure I adhere to every ridiculous edict/procedure/guideline that is recorded, make sure I am present and seen the required number of days in office, complete every required training program specified by my manager, director, and CEO, know the Enterprise Bargaining agreement chapter and verse, ensure I build up my flex to the maximum allowed, take flex days, blood leave days, holidays etc as specified and the minute I finish my work day clock off and never worry about work when I am not working.
Define multitasking I guess. I certainly context switch quite dramatically, even within an hour. I have 4 small teams - Support, Platform, API Dev and a niche statement team. Context switching between API Development and say, On Premise infrastructure, can almost lead to devastating decisions and chaos. I think my forte is putting together high performing and cohesive teams. If I do this, my job is a breeze most of the time. I just remove obstacles for them as required which can require some multitasking at times.I'm afraid this doesn't help at all in your sole trader business JB....
Over here in Iron Ore Mine Strip 1, they are having a fringe festival. I noticed in this morning's paper a show called "Wankernomics".
Being a paid servant of "The People's Democratic Republic of Western Australia" it would be funny, if not so true.
Link below, hope it works.
https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2023/shows/wankernomics-solutionising-the-corporate-world
I just skip from one project to another and back again mostly driven by my need to avoid boredom and keep my work as enjoyable as possible
Like some others I have a few matters going at any one time, I just pick out the most urgent, or the one that has some info just come in that I've been waiting on, or if all else fails (waiting on external providers for instance) I look out for the easiest task to complete! I have found (as you have) is at the start of the day I may make some notes/a list about what to do that day. And sometimes I just have to drop everything for a period and do that urgent thing that just popped up now...
You won’t get much help from me. I have to do one major project at a time otherwise I get concepts competing and overlapping, which is pretty much fatal for a patent search. Even two searches in a row with similar subject matter is bad, and needs to be broken by something more mindless. That said, a small two minute job can always be accommodated in the middle of a larger job because it doesn’t interfere brain wise and I do need to have mini breaks.
As prolific as you have been it appears that you are getting things done . And.done well. Control doesn’t mean jack sh^* if the work is half assed
I read somewhere that multitasking is impossible based on how our brains function. Even if we are doig many tasks we are always doing them one task at a time.
Yes, there is a name for it. Some German guy discovered the idea of “attention residue’ so it’s named after him. But attention residue is pretty good too.