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This is not a piece on time management. This is about developing new rituals to stop overwhelm.
So in order to stop overwhelm we have to control our own energy and our own habits and rituals.
The first thing that I recommend of the five rituals is to stop multitasking. Multitasking
is not a virtue. The word originated as a computing term, but a computer can run many
tasks simultaneously and complete all of them without stress. Before computers we didn't
even have a word to describe doing more than one thing at once. It was sometime in the
1980s that it became a desirable trait and sellable skill. It changed the way we work.
But what it's really done is create a great deal of stress for the human system. Let's
face it, in the long run multitasking is no more productive and possibly less productive
than single tasking. So your assignment is to stop multitasking and start paying attention
to one item at a time. Number two. Developing a system. The sense
you have when you are lacking systems is that you really invent your wheel each and every
time you have that particular task. And be honest, it's easy to find yourself doing it
even though it sounds completely ridiculous. So here are some common systems in the work
place to think about. Document filing, sales conversions, marketing, performance evaluations,
recruiting and hiring, decision making, training, the personal development, goals and measurement
settings, social media integration, product delivery, budgeting, pricing, product placement,
strategic thinking, quality control, customer service. If there is something falling through
the cracks try and create one life changing system, the one that is nagging at you the
most, and you will move out of overwhelm. The profound idea that Edward Deming gave
us and Michael Gerber populized in the E-Myth is that systems run the business and people
run the systems. What is your one great system you could develop today?
Number three. Automate something. When I post on my blog I have a whole automated system
that is posted to Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. When I like something on Facebook
it's available for my newsletter. When I write a newsletter I have dozens of posts and likes
to use and pre-program the next four or five e-mail blasts. In my marketing system half
of what I do is automated. Now I'm starting to automate some of my customer service systems
and my auto-response e-mails. So what can you automate?
Number three. Outsource it. Some of my marketing system that I told you was automated is outsourced.
I'm a huge fan of Elance.com. Even though I want to give work to people I know locally,
I often find it faster and simpler to let my fingers do the outsourcing, whichever way
makes you feel best. Here is the point, you don't have to do or even know how to do everything.
Learning and knowing and believing that you have to do everything is a sure way to become
overwhelmed. So here is your challenge, figure out something that you really would rather
not do. Let's start with that list. I'm not good at it and I don't like doing it. And
go on Elance and ask somebody else to do it. It's amazing I can assure you.
And last but not least I want to talk about real energy management. Number five is the
90 - 10 Rule. In the "Power of Full Engagement," Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz wrote that athletes
give one hundred percent of their energy and then need one hundred percent renewal. And
they say whether you are training for a triathlon, releasing a new product line or getting through
a work week, you should only exert one hundred percent of your focused energy for a short
time. In their estimation that's about ninety minutes. And we know enough about the brain
and how it works to see it firing and see that your juice actually starts to fail at
ninety minutes. So here's how it works. This is your new ritual.
If you are engaged in a physical activity after ninety minutes, take at least ten minutes
to engage in an activity of a different nature. A mental, spiritual or emotional practice.
After ninety minutes of this mental activity I will not fill that ten minutes with my e-mail
because that's another mental activity. I need to take a break and let my brain renew.
Those are five rituals that you could put into place today to stop overwhelm. Stop multitasking.
Automate something. Create a system. Outsource something you don't want to do and practice
the 90 - 10 Rule.