Lesson # 3 – Plan Step
Summary
In this lesson, you learned about the concept of flow, a very productive state where you feel fully focused and engaged by your work, and some of the conditions that you can create to enter into this state more regularly.
You also learned about the reasons why multitasking is an inefficient way to work and why working on related tasks for a block of time is a much better alternative.
You learned about the idea of ‘project blocks,’ which are like appointments with yourself where you’ve committed to focus on a single project for a block of time, and why they help you work more productively.
You also learned about the importance of taking regular breaks and identifying your high-energy and low-energy periods during a typical day.
Finally, you put all these concepts together and came up with a plan for what a very productive day would look like for you.
Questions & Feedback
Do you have any questions or feedback for this lesson? If so, please ask your question or add your comment below.
I am a unit manager in a high volume call center. One of the biggest and most distracting parts of my job is taking escalation calls. I do track these calls so I know when the bulk of them happen but this is still unpredictible. Any advice on how to plan these chunks of focus time needed to use this system successfully?
Because of the nature of your job, these kinds of interruptions can’t be completely avoided. So it’s particularly important for you to carefully consider WHAT you’ll be doing during the times when you CAN focus for longer periods of time.
Since you can’t predict if you’ll be interrupted during a focus block, it’s important to set things up so that you can recover more easily after an interruption. One way to do that is to make sure that you know what you are working on in your block and what your next action is, so you can get back to it quickly.
Finally, I would still look at ways to reduce these escalation calls. You may not be able to avoid them completely, but see if there is a way you can still reduce them.
Maybe it involves setting up a system (FAQ, etc.) that people have to go through consistently before escalating the call and improving it over time based on their feedback.
I hope this helps.