Take a look at your day and see what you complete. What we actually get done during our workday says a lot about where we focus our attention and what priorities we are carrying. The question is: do you like what your day says about you?

Our lives are filled with espoused priorities – the things we say are most important: things like our health, our families, being a good leader, being productive so that we can spend time on the most important things (whether that means work things or other things).

Do this quick exercise: make a list of just four things that are important to you – it can be at work or outside of work – it’s up to you. These should be the top four things that you feel are most important. Now, go back and have a look at your calendar or task list from yesterday (or the last work day). Take a good look at these. How many of these things actually helped you achieve those four ‘most important’ things?

If you’re like most people, this is a little frustrating. Quite often we find, through this exercise, that people spend a good deal of their day doing things that don’t get them closer to their goals. In some cases they do things that actually get them further away. In many cases, we can go the whole day (or whole week) completely neglecting one of those ‘most important’ things.

If you’re one of those people, take these simple steps to rethink the way you work and the things that get your attention:

1. Be clear about what is most important:

Think of the simple question that was asked earlier. What are the four things that are most important to you. If you had to think long and hard about that, then it is no wonder you don’t prioritise those things. When we are clear about what’s most important, then it becomes easier to factor those things into our days and weeks

2. Highlight simple behaviours that get you closer

Try to do something every day that impacts all four of the things on your list. These should be simple things that, when done regularly, will make a big impact in the long term. Don’t wait for opportunities to do huge things that make an enormous difference. Doing smaller things every day will eventually make a big impact.

3. Review every day for two weeks To embed the behaviours and keep you on track, review your most important things every day for two weeks. Answer this simple question for each one: ‘What did I do today that got me closer to …….?’

We all make choices every day about where to focus our time and energy. Sure, there will be things that you simply have to do, but there are always small choices along the way. Make sure you choose behaviours that will have the biggest impact on the most important things.

If you have the right inputs, you can create the right chemicals. You can create calming chemicals like serotonin or damaging, stress chemicals like cortisol.

To fight stress, the fuel we take in is critical. Here’s what we need: antioxidants to fight the damage that stress causes; omega 3 fats to rebuild cells and B-group vitamins to help produce calming chemicals that work in opposition to the stress response.

Antioxidants:

When we are under stress, we produce enormous amounts of energy and our cells (both body and brain) work overtime. This is why stress is exhausting. Just like a car, when we run our cells at high levels, high levels of by-products are also produced and it is these by-products (called free radicals) that eat away at our brain cells (and others) and hurt performance.

Antioxidants neutralise these free radicals. Foods high in antioxidants are coloured fruits and vegetables and berries. Article – 5 Foods Rich in Antioxidants

Omega 3 Fats:

Omega 3 Fats nourish our brains. After we are working overtime with the stress response, we need to repair the cells. We also need to make sure we have enough of the fuel that helps us to build new cell connections (this is learning) and lay down new behaviuors and habits. Omega 3 is that fuel.

Omega 3 Fats are found in some nuts, and fish such as salmon. Article – Best Omega 3 Foods

B-Group Vitamins:

These vitamins provide the inputs from which our calming chemicals are made. Like anything, if you don’t have enough ingredients, you can’t make enough of what you need. B-Group Vitamins, especially B6 and B12 are the ingredients for serotonin and GABA – the calming brain chemicals that help us to switch off the stress response so we can get back to normal.

Milk and milk products are one source of vitamin B. Article – Foods that are high in Vitamin B

Sick of your todo list not getting done? If you have an overwhelming to do list, it might be doing more than just getting neglected. It mighty actually be hurting your performance in more ways than you realize.

High performance today is about being clever. It’s about working smarter, prioritizing the million things bustling for your attention, finding creative solutions and finding new opportunities to improve.

The part of our brain that is most responsible for this is called the Pre-Frontal Cortex. But while the PFC tends to do this high value thinking, it’s also responsible for some very low level stuff as well.

And here’s the real problem:

This PFC only has a limited fuel supply. If you spend you time and energy doing the low value things, it leaves less fuel for the high value things. This concept of a performance fuel tank is a good analogy. If you have burnt all your fuel – if you’re fatigued, sleep deprived, or have spent an entire day doing high level thing – then you are less able to do things like make decisions, control emotions and behaviours or think critically. That PFC doesn’t function as well.

So what has your to do list got to do with all this?

Well, one of the low value things we do is hold things in short-term memory. Think about when someone gives you a phone number when you’ve got nothing to write on. The process of remembering that number – holding it in short term memory – for two minutes while you find a pad and pen is exhausting, right? Now imagine trying to actually do a problem solving activity while you�re remembering that number? Impossible.

A similar thing happens when you have a long to-do list. Most people spend an abnormal amount of their day trying to remember what they have to do. Thinking about who you can call in the car, wondering what you have to do when you get into the office etc. And all this �recall� burns a lot of cognitive �fuel� � leaving less to do the really important things.

Here are some things you can do to get that to-do list under control:

1) Write everything down � in one place

When you write things down all of a sudden it signals to the PFC that it can stop trying to remember. And you free it up to do some of the more important work. What is most important about this is to make sure that everything is in one place. Most people have a few different places for their tasks � their email inbox, a spiral notebook, their outlook folders � and this only adds to the angst. Now, you don�t just have to remember what you�ve got to do, you�ve got to worry about where everything is and if you�ve overlooked something

2) Think about �Task Categories�, not tasks

The reality is that even if you write things down, you�re going to still try to remember what you have to do when you get to the office. You have to write two reports, return three phone calls and construct five emails. To lighten the load of these things swimming around in your head, try to think in terms of Task Categories. These might include: Business Development, Administration, Report Writing� pick the four to six categories of things that are most important and fill your day. When we think in terms of categories, we can say �when I get to the office I have to do two hours of Business Development� instead of thinking about the ten individual tasks.

This is also handy as our scope of memory is about 4-6 items. At this level, it doesn�t take as much performance fuel to keep them in our head.

3) Park Everything in a time slot

Another way to get things out of your head is to �park� them in a specific time. Have you got two hours free from 12-2pm? Then schedule the tasks that you�ll get done in those two hours. For some reason, parking things is much like doing them. We can rest assured that we have found time to take care of them, so we stop worrying about them � but this only happens when we are specific about what we are going to do and when.

This also has the added benefit of stopping us from having to make decisions about what to do. Usually, when confronted with a decision, we tend to go for the easiest option. When you�ve already planned what you�re going to do, the decision is removed.

Working smarter today is about understanding how we free up resources to do our best thinking more often and for longer. This simple adjustment to managing your task list will create less stress and leave more resources available for you to do your best work.

We all do it. And usually to our own detriment.

There’s not necessarily a pattern: sometimes the task is too hard, sometimes too boring. Sometimes it’s too big or other times it’s too trivial. Whatever the case, there are two real explanations for why we procrastinate.� One is changeable and the other isn’t.

The unchangeable reason: we are wired to be lazy

Human beings have an inbuilt, hard wired tendency to do the easiest thing. This is an evolutionary throwback and one of our most useful survival mechanisms. Our need to survive taught us to preserve energy. After all, you don’t want to be attacked by a saber-toothed tiger (or another human) only to find out that your fuel tank is empty and you are unable to run away or put up a good fight.

For this reason we found ways to save energy physically. For instance, we found an optimal walking speed that allowed us to cover a good distance but which also left us with enough in reserve to run or fight if we needed to. Likewise, we also saved energy mentally by doing the easier thing. We still do this today – given the choice between two things our overwhelming tendency is to do the thing that requires the least energy. This natural tendency is impossible to change, but you can fool it – which is the topic for another post.

The Changeable reason: we get a buzz

The first thing that weed to know here is that patterns of behaviour are reinforced by a chemical called dopamine. Whether it is a physical skill like swinging a golf club or a behaviour like your child tidying up their room, or even a pattern of thinking, the circuits for all of these things are strengthened by this same chemical. Dopamine is also called the reward chemical – it is responsible for the good feeling we get when we get something we like. This is the mechanical reason that positive reinforcement reinforces patterns of behaviour.

But why do we get a reward response when we choose not to do something? Especially when it’s detrimental down the track? Well, every time we decide to do the easier thing, we can internally relax a little. We get that little omens of ‘phew! Now I don’t have to do that hard thing’ and that is what creates the dopamine rush.

So the unfortunate reality is that procrastination re forces procrastination. It gives us a little dopamine reward and therefore reinforces the behaviour for next time.

How do we stop this from happening? Here are two things you can do

1)��� Reward the harder thing.

Plan a small reward for doing the harder thing – this might be a quick trip to the coffee shop or reading an article that you’ve saved and haven’t had a chance to get to. It’s important to set up the reward first because the expectation of reward produces dopamine. This way the dopamine is for doing the harder thing rather than the easier thing

2)��� Set a short time limit to get the harder thing done.

Take a stopwatch or use the countdown timer on your smartphone and set it for no more than 60mins. Set yourself a target of completing the task (or part of the task if it will take longer that this) and then press the start button. This creates a sense of immediate deadline and produces both adrenalin and dopamine in small amounts. Again the dopamine is for the harder thing rather than the easier thing. It’s important to use a timer rather than just looking at the clock. The clock doesn’t give the same sense of urgency.

There are others things we can do to beat procrastination. Try these simple ones first and then we’ll deal wit some others in a later post.

The simple rule is that when you practice, you actually get better. But when it comes to multitasking (or technically, task-switching) we find the exception to the rule.

The accepted wisdom is that as we have become accustomed to the information age and the influx, overload and immediacy of this information, we have developed skills to cope effectively. We are becoming better at managing a number of separate tasks all at once, with more efficiency, controlling our attention between multiple activities.

This is wrong.

New research shows that people who are heavy multitaskers don�t actually get bet at multitasking, but they do get better at something � getting distracted. Heavy multitaskers are prone to getting more distracted by irrelevant information than those who don�t multitask as much.

While it seems that we�re practicing multitasking, what we�re really practicing is getting distracted. This is more evidence that we need to focus on completing one thing at any given point in time.

Here are some tips for maintaining focus:

• Be clear about the most important thing you need to do at any point in time
• Turn off your email alerts on your computer AND your phone. For those brave enough, divert your telephone if you need intense focus
• Don�t be afraid to close the door to your office for an hour or two when you really need to knuckle down
• If you work in a cubicle or open plan office, have a signal for when you�re working flat out � put your headphones in or something similar (even if you�re not playing music)
• Talk to your team about this so everyone�s on the same page

Multitasking has been proven time and again to impair productivity, increase error rate and increase time on the primary task. But still we do it and, worse, we might even expect it of our staff.

Another argument against multitasking come from neuroplasticity. It seems that we only really embed behavioural change when we focus on an activity with full attention. When we just �go through the motions� and get distracted, the behavioural re-wiring is only temporary.

Stop multitasking, start focusing.

In every job there are things that you�ll really enjoy and parts that you don�t. It�s the things that we love that keep us engaged and productive, they provide us with energy and naturally increase our productivity. Schedule the things you enjoy at least once a day. If possible, engage in these things either first thing in the morning to get your energy levels up, or last thing of the day to finish on a high note.
It�s far too easy to get caught up in the things you don�t like and then complain about it later on. Before you know it, you dislike your job because you don�t get to do the things you enjoy. But this is up to you as much as any one else.
It�s easy to identify the things you like. They will be things that you get lost in, things you volunteer for and things that require no external motivation to get going. Make a list of these things and engage in them at least once a day.
If you find that you never get a chance to do these things, discuss them with your manager and find a way to incorporate them into your daily work.