On Wednesday, I talked about the hazards of multitasking. But what’s a busy writer to do? We can’t very well shut out the world, can we?
No, but yes.
No, we can’t shut it out forever. Yes, we can shut it out for periods of time.
Some people do this naturally. If I have one talent in life, it’s the ability to focus on things. Sometimes I am embarrassingly good at this, such as when my wife is talking to me and I literally can’t hear her. Sometimes I am conveniently good at this, such as when my wife is asking me to change the kitty litter. (“Dang! Didn’t hear ya! What’s that horrible smell?”)
But even if you’re not good at shutting things out naturally, you can simulate it by being intentional. I learned this trick from a guy named Eben Pagan, an internet entrepreneur who teaches people how to be more productive. Eben says to buy a kitchen timer and set it for a certain length of time. Then give yourself permission to ignore everything until that timer goes off.
Everything. Phone ringing? Ignore it. Email chiming? Worry about it later. Cat meowing? Shove outside into blizzard. Kid bleeding? Yes it’s OK to deal with a bleeding kid. Anything else? Save for later.
You really can do this and it works if you’re weak on focus. The reason is that you’re playing a psychological trick on yourself. You know the timer is going to go off soon. That timer sets the boundaries on your focus time. It’ll make sure you come back to the real world. But until it does, the time you’ve set aside is yours, all yours, for whatever task you’re doing.
A timer gives you boundaries that protect your time. Try it and see. Eben Pagan recommends that you set the timer for 50 minutes and then when it’s done, set it again for a 10-minute break in which you detach completely from whatever you were doing. Then if you still have work to do, set the timer for another 50-minute work jag. You can get an awful lot done in life in 50-minute chunks.
You don’t even have to spend the ten bucks on a kitchen timer. I went to VersionTracker.com and did a quick search and found a Mac program with the sexy name “Timer Utility”. It’s free and it lets you set up an alarm clock, a stopwatch, or a countdown timer. I have one running on each of my computers.
You may be wondering why I use a countdown timer if I have such excellent powers of concentration.
The answer: Because I have excellent powers of concentration. I can easily get lost for three hours straight on a task. That’s not good when I have other duties. A timer helps ensure that I don’t get lost in la-la land for too long.
Furthermore, I can use a timer to set myself a challenge: “I bet I can get this blog post written in 15 minutes.” That ensures that I don’t lollygag in la-la land.
Or if I set the timer before a phone call, then I put limits on how long I’ll be gabbing to Weird Aunt Muriel. (“Sorry, Auntie! The doorbell just rang. Gotta go!”)
As I noted in my e-zine this past week, many people say that “multitasking makes you stupid.”
The converse of that is also true: Singletasking makes you smart.
What do my loyal blog readers think? Do you have tricks to get out of multitasking mode and into singletasking mode? Go ahead and leave a comment to brag about how clever you are.
Using a timer also puts on the pressure to produce. Remember our younger school days? We used to put off that report until the last minute, then pump it out.
We often do our best work under pressure. It’s faster (fewer edits/rewrites, actually) and more efficient.
This should work no matter where you are in the Snowflake cycle.
The timer sounds like a good idea for those prone to too much multitasking. I try to keep my prime writing hours (9am to noon) as distraction free as possible. I wear earplugs so I don’t hear my dog dreaming, or the school buses dropping off neighborhood kids (and run to the window thinking UPS has a parcel for me). And I don’t answer the phone unless it’s an emergency, which it has been maybe once in the last five years. After noon I still may work (usually do), but I’m allowed to be interrupted by life. The only kind of multitasking I’m any good at is riding the stationary bike while listening to an audio book. Even then I’m likely to crash.
I’ve discovered that, with two small children in the house, a kitchen timer won’t stay on my desktop long enough to get into the habit of using it. But when it’s around, it really works! It also helps to lock the office door and send the children to a neighbor’s house during that time period. The other alternative is to get up at 4:00 am and make a pot of coffee, then work really fast before the kids wake up, but I find I’m not disciplined enough to do this every day. Thanks for the wisdom, Randy!
I confess. It’s true, doing multiple things (which aren’t mentally taxing) at once is not really multitasking. So I will never again say I’m a multitasker.
I’m easily distracted, and anal, which means I get singly focused on one project and take WAY too long at it. To prevent this, when I’m at work and have many small, routine tasks to do, I keep a number of piles and files open to remind me of what I need to do in my day. I do get dizzy if I’m not careful to finish one at a time, but seeing them all shows me how much I have left visually so I can weigh the work against the clock. It sounds goofy, but I’m getting old and have decided not to fight my freakish mental disabilities but work with them.
Being easily distracted is a HUGE problem for me when writing, however. Writing is not routine, but creating, crafting, exploring. As an anal weirdo, I get stuck often when I don’t like how it’s going, and then let the sound of crashing waves pull me away to surf. The challenge of writing on a computer that’s online has made a lot of others switch to an unplugged machine.
Love the timer thing, I would love to try it. I think having a visible timer up in one corner of my screen would help. And then maybe a big hairy EYE in the other corner, watching me to make sure I don’t pop over to check email or facebook or blogs like this while I’m supposed to be creating staggering works of heartbreaking genius. Maybe a blend of eye and timer. I bet someone could write a program for that. 🙂
My “office” is in the former dining room which leads directly into the living room where the television (and other people) reside. When I want to write in the evenings after teaching school all day, I plug in the ipod or don the studio-caliber headphones connected to my computer and crank up relaxing, soothing, or motivating instrumental music. No words, thank you – I’m already wrangling with all I can handle. I’ve used this technique so often, that I must choose specific music for specific writing tasks or moods. For example, the intense refrains from “Last of the Mohicans” are great for romantic suspense, chase scenes or Randallesque exploding helicopters, but not for Bible studies – unless I’m writing about David and Goliath.
As a mom of young children, I can’t commit hours on end in a day to writing. But what I found helpful is I give myself one hour in the morning to write (and push myself to get 500 words out in that hour). During this time, I have activities for my children to do, so they are busy while I am busy.
I have found that I am actually getting more writing done with just that hour a day (and I only write 4 days a week), than I used to when I would try and grab a couple hours in an afternoon sporadically. I also do not feel my writing is taking me away from duties as a mother or my church ministry.
I use e.ggtimer.com to set a reminder for just 15 minutes. i give myself smaller targets, but it allows me to focus for those 15. When the timer expires, I simply restart it. Do it a few times and you realize you have just chalked up an hour of focused work.
It’s awesome when you just can’t get started on something, tell yourself to manage a single sentence for each section on what it’s about, in 5 minutes.
When I really can’t concentrate, I tell myself I’ll manage to write that paragraph in 3 minutes – usually I far excel my targets just as I’d want.
Or if I set the timer before a phone call, then I put limits on how long I’ll be gabbing to Weird Aunt Muriel. (”Sorry, Auntie! The doorbell just rang. Gotta go!”)
Do they make a timer with a chime that sounds like a doorbell? I’d buy one!
I need to try this. I’m used to sitting with a timer counting up for my regular job (I often work at home, on an hourly rate). I could just as easily switch to countdown mode while writing. Hmmm…
I seem to remember I was once organized and single-minded and decisive. Then I had kids. And then I crossed the Atlantic. Now I know the phone ALWAYS needs answering, the shopping ALWAYS needs doing straight away (’cause they wouldn’t have told me unless it was an emergency), any emails from spouse MUST be responded to immediately, and, well… the housework gets to wait till I’ve finished writing.
This is a great idea. I already have one that I never thought to use this way.
I use alarm clock software I found on the net at:
http://bluefive.pair.com/alarm.htm
I have had it for several years now, and it works well. It is even customizable and will play-back sounds or music from files on your computer.
For an organized approach and an overly detailed method for using a timer, take a look at Pomodoro Technique