How to Stop Working on Too Many Things at Once
Doing too much gets you nowhere, fast
You're doing too many things at the same time.
Meetings, dashboards, analyses, investigations, bug fixes, documentation, code reviews, Slack messages, emails...
The list will never end.
If you try to do everything, you will make progress on almost none of it.
How do you get out of the flurry of competing priorities?
Work sequentially.
But first, working in parallel
Before we define working sequentially, lets define the opposite: working in parallel.
Working in parallel is the process of working on multiple things at once. But that's not possible. What we do is work on one thing for a short period of time, then work on something else for a short period of time, then move on to something else.
We move to a new task before the current task is completed.
We aren't working on multiple things at the same time, we are distracting ourselves with other, less important work.
Working in this way ensures we don't make progress on what's most important. We're guaranteed to limit our impact.
The solution is working sequentially.
Working sequentially
To work sequentially, is to work on ONE thing until it's completed.
ONE task at a time. ONE project at a time. Big or small. Difficult or easy.
When we're bored, we don't distract ourselves with something else. When it's difficult, we don't switch to an easy task. We take a break, then get back to the ONE thing.
We get more done by accomplishing one thing, then moving on to the next one. Then accomplishing something, then moving on to the next one. Then accomplishing something, then moving on to the next one...
Plus, it feels good to check things off the list.
How to implement sequential work
The steps are easy, but it's difficult to stay disciplined.
- Pick the most important project or task.
- Only work on that ONE thing until it's complete.
- Move on to the next thing.
Don't layer in other tasks when you have free time, instead, use that free time for two things:
- Take a break.
- Spend more time on that ONE thing.
The only reason to move on to the next thing is:
- You're done with the ONE thing.
- You're *actually* blocked and waiting to get unblocked.
Otherwise, pour all your energy into that ONE thing.
Challenge yourself to shutdown Slack, close your email, and remove all other distractions so you can focus on your ONE thing.
Over time, you'll find there's a meditative feeling to shutting everything out in favor of the ONE thing.
Your accomplishments are made up of things you complete.
You can only complete ONE thing at a time.