Time Strategies

Ironically, I'm writing this post at the last minute. I promise I left enough time to do it, but maybe I need to read a few more time management articles!

I started by reading "You Say Multitasking Like It's a Good Thing" by Charles Abaté. This was a great article for me to read, because I've noticed over the past year or so that my ability to focus my attention on one thing is suffering. It's easy for me to fall into the habit of checking my phone constantly, even when I'm trying to do serious work. Not only can that lead to me wasting my time on Instagram, but even the act of checking my phone distracts me and makes me lose my focus. Abaté points out that according to research, we actually learn differently when we multitask (which is basically what I do when I continually interrupt my work to check my phone). He writes that when we single-task, we learn on a more conscious and intellectual level, which allows us to remember and apply information better. This summer, I deleted all my "fun" apps (mostly social media) off my phone, just for a few weeks, to allow myself to break the habit of constantly checking it. This strategy worked, because once I realized I had nothing to check and no apps to pointlessly open, I stopped picking up my phone so often. I don't think there's anything wrong with social media, but I also realize that it's an important skill to be able to focus one's attention on one thing for a long period of time. It's something I'm working on, and articles like this one with real evidence for the harmfulness of distraction (in the form of multitasking, in this case) serve as a great reminder to continue checking and working on my focus.

The perils of multitasking!

Comic by Rob Cottingham, Flickr.

I've seen "single-tasking" challenges online, which sound silly and can be extreme but are good ways to observe our tendency to multitask. Realizing how strong the urge is to multitask and distract ourselves is a good first step in bettering our abilities to focus.

I also read "How to Beat Procrastination" by Caroline Webb, which explains why the lure of procrastination is so strong and suggests strategies for avoiding it. She argues that the reason we procrastinate is because we have a strong present bias, which means that the present is more real and concrete to us than the future and so we tend to favor the present when we make our decisions. In other words, we procrastinate because working would be hard on our present self, even though procrastination is much harder on our future self. I had never heard of the present bias before, and I think it's a really helpful way to explain procrastination. It is true that life is usually easier when I don't procrastinate, but that's difficult to see in the moment when I'm faced with work. Knowing I have this bias can help me to better evaluate my time management decisions, and Webb's suggestions for conquering this bias are helpful. Especially helpful to me is her suggestion to break down the assignment into small, manageable tasks and identify the first one. When I procrastinate, it's usually because I'm overwhelmed by the task I have to do. If I can make that first task into something small and doable, and if I can also recognize that I'm biased and I'll have to do the work at some point no matter what, I think that I can come much closer to beating procrastination.