May 2012

One Tip for a More Productive Day
by Ed Ruggero

This recent blog post from the Harvard Business School titled "The Magic of Doing One thing at a Time" says that by splitting our attention among several tasks (answer email while on a phone call, anyone?) we decrease our effectiveness.

Much of the hard work we do as leaders requires concentration and focus. No matter what your local teen tells you about being able to do homework while listening to music, surfing the web and texting, research shows that we are significantly less productive. It takes us longer to create anything worthwhile, and every time we respond to the urgent, we lose focus that's hard to recover. Imagine you had to get up from your seat and walk across the room to respond to every distraction. You wouldn't be surprised if, at the end of a day spent waltzing back and forth, you hadn't accomplished much. Well, every time you "zoom out" from a tight focus, you're taking a walk away from the work in front of you, and it takes time to get back.

See Tony Schwartz's short blog for some practical ideas to combat the "tyranny of the urgent" and save your mental energy for the important stuff.

Ed Ruggero is the co-author of The Leader's Compass: A Personal Leadership Philosophy Is Your Foundation For Success. He is also the creator of the Gettysburg Leadership Experience.