And this is how I fixed it, and You can too!
I am a Millennial which also means that I’m qualified to be Multitasking more than my predecessors on this planet ever did. And when I mean multitasking, this is how it looks typically — an average of 10 tabs open on my Chrome (I’m being conservative here) with the following in it:
My Chrome Toolbar at any time instance ‘t’
- 1 Google and 1 Gmail
- 2+ Youtube Videos
- 2+ Github Links
- 2+ Medium Articles
- Goodreads, Wikipedia and much more
Forgot to mention those frequent push notifications, messages and calls beeping on my phone!
With these assets just one-click away from my fingers, I constantly juggle between my Gmail, Medium Article, Github — while the Youtube video is playing into me through my headphones. That’s a lot of multitasking to all the available sensory organs, I believe. And when this happens, I bet my productivity hits rock-bottom because:
When I’m too busy changing my browser-tabs, I almost end up doing nothing!
So, How did I fix it?
1. Pre-defined SMART Goal(s):
Starting my Day setting highly minimalistic SMART Goal(s) of the Day. I understood this fact that, If I do start my day locking down “I’ve gotta do this today”, My brain constantly sends me Push notifications urging me do achieve those goals (do those tasks) otherwise it sends out soldiers in form of Anxiety and Panicking, so that I do finish those goals to feel accomplished (alternatively otherwise feel incomplete)
2.Tracking — Pen & Paper:
Keeping a Pen and Paper (Yes, that Papyrus stuff) just next to me, noting down every single thing that I completed with my laptop since my machine boot up. You might be wondering, “What? You’re a millenial sitting in front of an Intel-powered laptop, so why not note down in Notepad.exe”, the answer is, If i do so, it’s going to be another entity in my changing-tab-game while Pen & Paper does serve as a robust log book that also sends my performance feedback to my control center (brain) through my hand (writing which takes more time than typing), eyes (reading the same)
3. Constant Validation:
I’ve got two sides of the table — What I wanted and What I’ve done! It’s important to constantly validated if Pt. 2 (Action) led to crossing out of Pt.1 (Goal) keeping the ETA (Estimated Time Available — in front of the laptop, in mind).
4. Switching back:
I might be starting a Youtube Video while reading a Medium article where another Youtube Video could have embedded, hence I’d pause my first video and start with the new one. But the important thing here, is to switch back to my first video once my current video finishes, this way, I make sure the first video gets into my completed list (Pt 2) and also anyone could start a video of an hour and half and juggle between a lot other things, but making sure I come back and finish that one I started, ensures my faith on my discipline.
5. Closing Tabs:
Tabs Closed
Keeping tabs open might look fashionable, but closing tabs not just frees up your computational resources also helps you focus more on those pending tabs rather than depressed that there’s a lot pending.
6. Rewards & Punishments:
Ultimately, Human beings are highly-susceptible to both Rewards and Punishments.
Let’s start with Punishments:
- Closing Tasks/Tabs that takes significantly longer than you expected it’d be done. We as a species hate disappointing someone unless we tend be a jerk. But sometimes you’ve to be a jerk to yourself and that’s only how discipline could be taught and that means you’ve to interrupt yourself and stop things that really take a lot of your time.
- Sitting Late and Not taking Coffee/Food — when you feel that craving — until you finish that (Only Goal or ) at least one of those Goals that you started your day with. Punishing this way sends a strong message back to your brain that you’re a tough guy when you miss your deadline.
- Starting the next day carrying over the remaining Tasks/Goals of the current day. This ensures the goal isn’t missed and also looking at the same thing in the pending list again and again, would just irritate your brain, hence it’d urge you complete them without a miss, next time.
Rewards:
- Striking out finished task that’s listed on the paper and Trust me it’s really a good feeling that your entire body would feel happy about and refreshed.
- Self-Appreciating yourself with more-than-silent voice so that your Ear reads the message and conveys it back to your Brain, that in turn could release some dopamine in happiness.
- Fun Time/Task — gifting yourself with some free time or supposed to be entertaining task like a Youtube Video clip or just a fun article or skimming through some reddit/twitter conversation.
This is not a 5-rules for Productivity listicle nor that I’m a Productivity guru either, This is something that worked for me and I hope it would for you too!