Abhi’s Newsletter Vol 6 : Switching Tasks & Contexts
Hey Productive People!
Has the WFH fatigue settled in yet? It certainly has for me! While praying for the world, let’s get into this editions’ highlights straightaway!!
Learning of the fortnight 💪
Master the art of switching tasks 🤺
We don’t truly appreciate how much inertia we have. when we are in the flow (or working already), it’s so much easier to get more of the same kind of work done. When we are not in the flow (or resting) it’s much harder!Arthur Doyle the creator of Sherlock Holmes once said, “change in work is the best rest”. I agree! we must therefore switch from one kind of work to another. I can tell you from experience that it is hugely productive if the work you are switching from and to are complimentary. For instance, I switch from office e-mails to personal e-mails and then pick up any actions extremely seamlessly.
Another example is to pack your morning routine as related tasks together i.e. get up, straight to morning rituals e.g. that fabulous solo performance in shower, to yoga, and tidying up the room before you grab that phone! Now compare that with a undesirable morning routine i.e. get up, reach for that phone, see that office e-mail, you have already forgotten about Yoga, and without that solo performance in shower, you are having a poor morning already!Read here for more wonderful ideas such as habit stacking.
A quote from me. 🔦
“Truth is always complicated. Lies are often laden with tempting simplicity” 🍦
Shaped narratives are very hard to spot. They are “designed” to play your mind. Take an example of political campaigns. Every political narrative has a plot, a story, a few characters, a moral and perhaps even more nuances.
“Coronavirus can be treated with hot garlic soup; an old Chinese doctor has proven its efficacy” Sounds familiar? 🤣
Narrative building is an art, it can be extremely useful to get the right message across, we just need to be aware of lies and deceit when we are on the receiving end of it.
Reading of the week 📖
Context Switching Penalty 🚓
Read more…
[stu alias=”newsletter”]
To build on learning of the week, the principle behind effectiveness of habit stacking is that we need to avoid context switching penalty. First, it means there is a cost associated with every distraction. You are writing a document. A Gmail notification pops up. You pick up the phone, and do that enough number of times, and I bet the document will be of sub-par quality than it would have been if you had continued to concentrate. The key is to reduce distractions and be more productive! try that at work!
Click here to learn more about context switching penalty.
More power to you!!
Abhi[/stu]
Abhinandanshah.com 