If only that were true – how much more could we do in a day?
I enjoy watching Dave Ramsey on the Fox Business Network whenever I can, and last night I managed to catch it while I was cooking dinner. Dave’s guest for the evening was Dr. Henry Cloud, who had some very interesting things to say about time management and setting boundaries between our personal lives and work lives.
As I was simultaneously listening and trying not to burn dinner, I realized that much of what Dr. Cloud said applies very well to us as professional photographers, especially those, like me, who work out of their home.
How many of you feel at the end of a busy day that you’ve really achieved something with the time you had? I know I sometimes get frustrated at many of the interruptions that divert my attention from what I’m supposed to be focused on, leaving me feeling overwhelmed and disappointed at the end of the day. It’s unpleasant going to sleep with the thought of all the things you should have done that day, but will have to do tomorrow.
Plugged Into The Matrix:
I’m sure it was a lot easier in the days before email, mobile phones and Facebook – but now we have so many distractions throughout the day that they can really affect our level of achievement. Sometimes I feel as though we, as a society, constantly need to be plugged into something, and I doubt there’s a hardly a place on the planet where we could hide for too long without being disturbed in some way.
Several years ago, when I still worked in the corporate world, my bosses thought it would be good for me to attend the “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” course. One of the key points of that course was the concept of prioritizing tasks and potential interruptions using a simple chart of important/unimportant and urgent/non-urgent. Something can be important, but not urgent, but the tasks we need to focus our time and energies on are the important/urgent ones.
But that can be difficult when all the unimportant/urgent tasks (such as answering the phone, checking the weather, reading the news, watching YouTube) keep getting in the way and stealing our time from us (actually, we give that time away, if we admit the truth).
Stop, Thief!
It’s time to take back our time – all those moments throughout the day that are stolen from us by needless distractions, which come disguised as something important or urgent – busywork in emergency clothing, as it were.
A typical photographer’s day might go something like this:
Check email, check phone message, read all the jokes sent by well-meaning friends, log into Facebook & update status, start editing yesterday’s photographs, get disturbed by the phone, check emails while talking on the phone and forward some jokes, get back to the photographs, decide to answer an email, phone rings again, try to book a session, have lunch, talk to the spouse, get kids to where they need to be, cook dinner, feed the pets… you get the picture, and it’s an ugly one.
Chaos Doesn’t Rule:
Physicists have a saying that the universe and other complex systems tend to move towards chaos (maximum entropy) and away from order (minimum entropy). I don’t know about you, but most days, I feel like someone let off an entropy bomb right there in my work place. Before you know it, everything’s all confused, there’s no clear direction, and a million things need to be done – all at the same time.
Did Someone Say Focus?
We need to call the bomb squad to defuse the entropy bomb, and restore some order to our lives – the best way I can see to do that is to set aside dedicated time to complete tasks, and to limit the interruptions.
That means turning off email programs on the computer, logging out of Facebook, putting the phone away, closing the door and actually sitting down to complete a task. It’s hard at first, because you might feel like Tom Hanks right after that FedEx plane crashed. The temptation to get up and do something else, anything, is very strong. But, it’s amazing how much more quickly a task can be completed in this way – and it gives a great sense of accomplishment.
Dr. Cloud talked about having an internal chaperone to be our guide, and to whom we must be accountable, which is a wonderful idea. We can also call it our conscience, and it will give you a little nudge or two when you’ve been wasting time on unimportant things.
Another barrier to getting things done is all the clutter that accumulates like sediment on our desks and in our workspaces. I find it much harder to work in a space that’s all cluttered up – pieces of paper, pens, bills and magazines can all be interesting distractions to a mind that yearns to procrastinate.
So take some time to clear out the clutter; your mind (not just your desk) will be a lot clearer for it.
As a summary, here’s a quick list of some ways to tackle this problem:
- Keep a to-do list
- Take time to prioritize the items on your list
- Dedicate specific time to a specific task
- Stay focused on a task until it’s complete
- Minimize interruptions (mobile phone, email, social networking)
- Do take short breaks (walk or stretch etc.)
- Set some achievable goals
- Listen to your internal chaperone
- Eliminate distractions
- Remove clutter
How do you cope with the pressures of modern-day life – trying to get work done amidst all the random noise around us? I’d be interested to hear from you, so please feel free to leave a comment.
Time Mgt. planning, time management
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