How to create a productive routine when working remotely - part 6

Single Focus

The research proves that multitasking does not work. Trying to do this can decrease your productivity by as much as 25 or 40 or 100% or even more, depending on the complexity of what you’re doing. It’s better to ‘single task’ by working on just one thing at a time. One of the biggest driver of multi-tasking are interruptions from email, phone and/or visitors. Hopefully, working remotely should eliminate visitor interruptions (although interrupting colleagues might simply be replaced with interrupting kids or pets). So, turn off all email and social media alerts and schedule a few times during the day to check these (in a batch, as mentioned above). I call these strategic reserve times (SRT) – time set aside specifically to deal with the unexpected ‘stuff’ that crops up every day – communications and tasks. Some people call these GAM times (got a minute). You can use these dedicated times as an incentive and/or reward for staying focused and getting some of your important work done and finished.