“ Between now and the ISPA Conference , pay attention , observe yourself as if you liked yourself and cared for yourself . Observe how you talk to yourself , how you coach yourself through the day . Start to recognize if It ’ s working well enough or It ’ s working amazing or It ’ s not working well .”
Multitasking- Beneficial skill to develop ? “ No , multitasking is not anyone ’ s superpower ,” said Mellen . “ If you ’ re on the phone and filing papers at the same time , you ’ re either filing too many papers or not clued into the conversation .”
Mellen mentioned , “ A study at the University of London surveyed 1,100 workers , all focused around electronic media . The study found that attempting to multitask with electronic media created a greater decrease in IQ than if you had not slept for 24 hours or were high on marijuana .” He concluded , “ Brain science just tells us that you can ’ t multitask . What you can do is rapidly shift between two tasks — but your brain can ’ t do two tasks at the same time .”
“ Part of what we ’ ll be talking about at the ISPA Conference are those eight deadly time thieves : interruption , overcommitting , poor planning , multitasking , meetings , social media , procrastination , emails ,” said Mellen . “ When we think about those in the context of our organizations , it ’ s all about the culture and the culture you set as the leader . “ We ” have to look at how pliable the culture is : Is it open to changing , or does the culture reward interruptions , encourage interruptions , have sloppy boundaries ?”
Innovative ways to manage overflowing inboxes Mellen ’ s number one tip for efficient email practices is : Do not read your email if you don ’ t have the time to reply to it at the same time .
“ If you don ’ t have the time to respond to it , at best you ’ re just wasting the time reading it because you ’ ll have to re-read it when you do have the time to respond to it ,” said Mellen . You may think in the moment you ’ re scanning for the things that matter , but the reality is you ’ re just wasting the time .
Mellen warned : “ Worst case scenario , you read something that you
get snagged by and now you can ’ t return to what you were doing because you ’ re in an emotional bubble of upset and you have to process the upset .” He explained , “ We ’ re interrupted by communications technology every 10 minutes and , on average , it takes 23 minutes to recover from one interruption . Those interruptions can stack up , and you may think to yourself , I was really busy today , but I got nothing done .” When you have that mindset of being so busy but not accomplishing anything , you tend to want to stay late at work or come in on a Saturday , but Mellen cautioned that is not a sustainable solution to the problem . n
ISPA THANKS SPAFINDER FOR SPONSORING the February 2024 Town Hall . To view the full “ Mastering Your Time : Tactics to Declutter Your Daily Routine and Lead Efficiently ” Town Hall video , click on Virtual Sessions under the Events tab at experienceispa . com .
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