Seedplots

An influential Christian leader was recently asked, “What single bit of counsel has made the most significant difference in your effective use of time?”  He answered,

A great tree will fall with many small chops.
Pray for daily grace to keep chopping.

I’m learning the wisdom of this advice in the small things of my life.

For years I’ve I’ve had on my “Things to Do” – Someday/Maybe list the entry “Catalog my library”. I’m managed to group my library into categories tailored to my ministry focus but haven’t succeeded in actually getting around to entering the books into a database and preparing the corresponding book spine labels.  It always seemed like too big a project.

Now I’ve started the project using “small chops.”  Using an internet service called the LibraryThing I’m entering 5 or 6 books a day.  The site is working well for me – I just enter the ISBN number and up pops the book, with all the bibliographic date and even a photo of the book.  Amazing!

I’ve put this in my list of daily routines and I’m finding it takes less than 10 minutes a day.  It’s working!  If I keep it up eventually I’ll have the books entered and catalogued and the web site will give me an exportable listing of my library that I can import into Excel, EndNotes and Zotero.

David Allen’s advice in Getting Things Done on developing and using a “Project List” is excellent.

When we begin implementing his suggestions we quickly end up with a list of 30 or more projects.  That’s a problem.  Trying to do too many projects at once kills a person’s effectiveness.

I found Matt Perman’s advice helpful,

It is far better to focus your efforts on a few things, get them done, then move on to the next thing.

The less projects you have going on at once, the more quickly you will be able to move them forward. The more projects you have going on at once, the more slowly you will be able to move each forward.

The person whose efforts are diffused will generally be finishing his or her projects a long ways out and “in bulk,” with little sense of accomplishment and momentum carrying her along.

But the person who goes about those same projects largely one by one will have a continual record of progress all along the way — plus growing momentum and the satisfaction of actually getting somewhere.

Having 70 projects on your list naturally inclines you to diffuse your efforts over far too many things rather than focus on a few, most important things.

The Solution: Create an “Upcoming” Category in Your Project List
What’s the solution? It’s actually pretty simple. Divide your projects list into two categories:

• Current Projects
• Upcoming Projects

Keep your “current projects” category well-pruned and very short. Put the stuff that you need to do, but don’t have to be working on at the present time, in your upcoming category. As you complete items on the current projects list, transfer things up from the upcoming list.

You can let the upcoming list get up to 70 or 100 or more. It doesn’t matter there, because you aren’t giving your efforts to that list. And when you do move items up from it onto the current list, you can see the big picture and make sure you are picking what is truly most important to do next.

Now, make note of this: Whenever it is time to activate more upcoming projects, you should re-evaluate your whole list to see if your priorities remain the same. Then activate the 1-2 items on that upcoming list which now most reflect what your priorities are… This generally results in new and different priorities.

Can You Still Have Multiple Projects Active at Once?
Now, don’t we have to be able to do some projects simultaneously? Yes, we do. I’m not saying that you should only have one project on your current list. You might have 5 or even 10.

In your actual day-to-day execution of tasks, literally do one thing at a time when it comes to things that require focus. There is a limit to how many projects you can do simultaneously. Abide by that limit — and, in order to do this, you need to make your project list reflect it. And if you ever have any free time, you can always work ahead on that “upcoming” list.

The original article is found here.

In an earlier posting I wrote about dividing the work day, when possible, between key projects and daily routines/office work.  I shared the simple observation that the best way to tackle key projects is through concentrated focus and attention.

We all know this, of course, but we also look up to the person who is skilled at “multitasking.”  The evidence points in another direction.  The well known writer Peter Drucker made the startling observation,

“I have never encountered an executive who remains effective while tackling more than two tasks at a time.”

Multitasking, per se, is not bad.  In the reality of the everyday world, it is often necessary.  But it doesn’t mesh well with concentrated focus on important projects.  Research conducted at the University of California suggests it takes a person from 6 to 20 minutes to recover and refocus after and interruption. If you are interrupted several times an hour, concentrated focus becomes impossible.

It’s not a question of “either-or’” but “both-and.”

Set aside time in your daily schedule for the multitude of small tasks that need doing, and use your multitasking skills.

But also create chunks of time in your day when you won’t be interrupted.  Use these periods for concentrated focus on key projects.

This simply will not happen without planning and discipline.  That’s the rub.

If you work to make this happen, the “Tyranny of the Urgent” will take over and your work day will become a constant stream of “multitasking” or “switching” as the author of The Myth of Multitasking: How “Doing It All” Gets Nothing Done prefers to call it.