FANNING:  Video on how to stop wasting time

By Ben Fanning, contributing columnist  |  Did you know that you waste time when you switch between activities?

You’re wasting time because every time you switch to a new task, it leaves “attention residue” that negatively impacts your efficiency.

Here it is from attention rescue expert Sophie Leroy: “[P]eople need to stop thinking about one task in order to fully transition their attention and perform well on another. Yet, results indicate it is difficult for people to transition their attention away from an unfinished task and their subsequent task performance suffers.”

In other words you’re still thinking about the previous task when you move on to the next… even if you don’t realize it. So try this one strategy to eliminate the need for task switching and stop wasting time — batch process.

This is well known in manufacturing and computer design circles, but it’s time to bring it to your workday. If you’re not batch processing, you’re wasting time. Use batch processing by grouping like tasks at work to eliminate the need for task switching.

Here are three steps to use batch processing in your work =day:

1. Identify recurring tasks in your workday. Scan your calendar and write those down. Here are some examples:

• Answering email
• Filing expense reports
• Trip planning
• Returning phone calls
• Scheduling meetings
• Reading
• Cleaning

2. Block time on your calendar and assign that block to one of the processes above.
3. Do only that activity for that entire block of time Notice how that simple shift eliminates the time waste and increases your speed and efficiency.

• For more tips and strategies for getting your gotta do work done go to http://benfanning.com/