THE SECRETS TO GETTING MORE DONE? STRATEGIC SLACKING
OFF
FINDING
YOUR "MINIMUM EFFECTIVE DOSE" FOR TASKS CAN NOT ONLY SAVE YOU TIME
BUT MAKE YOU MORE PRODUCTIVE, TOO.
We
all know trying to be the best at everything is a strategy that often results
in failure. While cutting certain tasks out of our lives completely may not be
an option, Christine Carter, sociologist and author of The
Sweet Spot: How to Find Your Groove At Home And Work says we can not
only find more hours in the day but can improve our effectiveness in the tasks
on our plate by following what those in the pharmaceutical industry call the
"minimum effective dose." "Doctors are always trying to prescribe
the least amount of pharmaceuticals for their patients that will still be
effective," says Carter.
"We
live in this more-is-better culture—more work, more friends on Facebook, more
stuff—but in reality, more is often toxic for us," says Carter, who cites
higher levels of stress as proof that the more-is-better culture isn’t really
working for us anymore. "Less might actually be more effective," she
says.
Carter
started her search for her minimum effective dose with what she called her
biggest timewaster—email. She looked at how little time she could get away with
using email while still being effective at her job. Rather than leaving her
inbox open all day, she decided to check email strategically once in the
morning and once more at 3pm. While we often assume that people expect a
response within 10 seconds of sending an email, in reality a response within
the same day will suffice most people.
Carter
also eliminated back-and-forth communications on email. "If I need to have
a conversation with someone, I’ll pick up the phone," she says.
Meetings
were another area Carter searched for her minimum effective dose. "I work
in an institution that can be very meeting heavy," she says. After
realizing she was spending a large part of her working hours in inefficient meetings,
Carter decided to find her minimum effective dose and told her team she needed
to spend more time doing research rather than attending all of the meetings.
Carter
even found her minimum effective dose in her writing. "I had to look at
how many times a week I needed to post a new blog post in order to still
maintain my traffic and be effective in marketing my writing," she says.
Surprisingly, as she cut back, her blog traffic actually increased and her
newsletter subscriptions went up. "I didn’t just maintain my
effectiveness; my effectiveness actually increased," she says.
While
searching for the minimum effective dose may seem to type-A perfectionists like
slacking off, Carter says it’s very strategic slacking off in order to increase
the quality and quantity of your work. "When we’re less stressed, we’re
less exhausted and we’re able to assess a much more powerful part of our
brain," she says.
How
can you find your minimum effective dose?
Write
down all the categories of things that take up your time in your personal and
professional life—such as meetings, making dinner, helping kids with homework,
email, etc. Then write down the things you wish you were doing that you’re not
doing right now.
Go
through the list of activities and indicate whether it’s one that brings you
joy and you wish you could do more of or if it's something you dread and wish
you could do less of. "You don’t want to minimize the things in your life
that are actually bringing you joy. That’s not an appropriate place to find the
minimum effective dose," says Carter.
Once
you’ve identified the things that drag you down, consider whether you can
change the amount of time and energy you put into each of these things, finding
your minimum effective dose
BY LISA
EVANS
http://www.fastcompany.com/3045255/work-smart/the-secrets-to-getting-more-done-strategic-slacking-off
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