Musings & Meanderings

This is a new phenomenon caused by information overload in the digitized world of hyper-connectivity, right? Wrong. I first heard this sentiment many decades ago, expressed by people who are now in their 80s and 90s. I doubt it was new then.

The Too Busy To Think syndrome is exacerbated by prosperity, and also influenced through the second half of the 20th century by the increasingly rapid pace of technological innovation. It isn’t caused by these factors, though.

If you’re too busy to think, then it’s time to stop, as in ‘time out’. Regroup. Re-evaluate. If you are basically content to work hard and leave the thinking to others, as some people are, then carry on. This post is for those who aren’t, for those who just know that they’re running too fast without getting where they want to go.

Sometimes we can’t, and sometimes we don’t even want to get off any one of the treadmills we’re on. For many years, I juggled raising my two children with running businesses/deals and managing a home. It was a real challenge, but I wouldn’t have given up any one of them as long as I had the choice. Instead I learned to prioritize, organize, and practice self discipline more effectively. I was vaguely aware that there were all sorts of books being published that would teach me such things, but I didn’t have time to go looking for them, let alone reading them, so I just dealt with it up on my own.

Dealing with it meant first creating a sort of complicated flow chart in my head, with multiple input sources to me (in the center) and multiple output channels, and with a balanced integration of results at the end. This visualization of the strategy for achieving my goals and desired results sometimes acted the way a floor plan of a house or office does, in that it helped both determine how much stuff would fit where, and also how to navigate back and forth.

My ‘flow chart’ helped me balance my energies between family, business, and personal duties, desires, and goals. If creating a workable flowchart seems impossible because there are too many of those, then back up a step and divide them into broad categories, listing what you want/need to achieve in each one in order of priority. Then organize them via input and output.

The process of prioritizing can also be a great reality check in terms of what you are actually able to accomplish. As an example, although I divided child ferrying duties with a nanny-housekeeper and family, attending events that my kids participated in, knowing all their teachers and school principals, and knowing their friends, were top priority for me, but home cooked meals fell to a minimum of 75%, and some of those were pre-frozen in family portions.

Secondly, the tool that increased my productivity more than any other was a weekly series of lists, in writing. These looked like anyone else’s ‘to do’ list at a glance, but they were not typical at all.

Eventually, with practice, I only had to do one integrated list per week, but to get there and make the lists effective, I originally started with several different types of lists: one of major project and commitment (including personal) goals, a second of important tasks (things that would consume hours and could not be effectively accomplished if constantly interrupted), a third of necessary relationship and team maintenance duties including meetings, a fourth which was an overview checklist for things that it was my responsibility or requirement to make sure that others got done, and a fifth of minor tasks such as telephone calls.

If you haven’t made lists like this before, you might find it easier to make separate ones for business and personal, or even for different areas of each, but the most important thing to increase effectiveness is to first group and then integrate them in order to see how best to allocate your energies.

My eventual single weekly list was divided into a half dozen categories on the page. The most important division of all was between things that could be done quickly and in any order, and things that required uninterrupted concentration for extended periods.

When, for some personal or family reason, I started the week without making the list, my productivity fell dramatically, as did my clarity and focus.

Making a lot of lists might work better for some, as long as you can ’see’ them all at once. It isn’t the lists themselves that are important; it’s the sorting out what you need to do, and realistically can do, to get from here to there by a certain time and determining how to get it all done.

I’ve met quite a few people over time, including business associates and partners, employees, friends, and family, who unhappily make ‘to do’ lists because they’ve accepted the reality that everyone forgets things. Really simple lists, say for the similar tasks of one workday or for grocery shopping, are useful, but few people use more complex lists that group tasks by a variety of factors.

Here are three of the reasons that ‘to do’ lists are often minimally effective.

1. Making them in the simple order that things occur to you, without organizing the tasks according to goals, complexity, etc. If that kind of organization is unfamiliar or difficult at first, then try using as many different pieces of paper with headings as you need, and lay them out side by side. You can divide things in whichever way suits you: by category, by type of task, by priority, etc.

2. Shooting the ducks first, to use a friend’s favorite phrase. This means approaching any list with the goal of shortening it as quickly as possible, so you do the easiest and fastest things first, without consideration for priorities or deadlines. A lot of times this approach results in never getting to some of the more important things, often being too tired to tackle the biggest most challenging tasks by the time you get to them, and unnecessary procrastination.

3. Abandoning unfinished lists and starting over. The more often you do this the worse you feel about yourself and about lists, too.

So if your to do lists aren’t doing it for you, if you feel like you’re racing on a treadmill, suffering from Too Busy To Think, yet not getting anywhere near your goals, then stop. Regroup. Re-evaluate. Start from the beginning, and make the most important list first, the one that identifies your needs, obligations, desires, and goals. Prioritize everything. List your resources. Plan each path, and if there aren’t enough resources to reach all the destinations, then start cutting from your lowest priorities in each area until you find a balance that you really believe is possible.

We’re used to the idea of budgeting our money, but many of us do not budget our time effectively.

Oh, and don’t forget to put time to think, to laugh, and to love, into that budget.

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In this post, I’ve described the approach that worked for me when Too Busy To Think threatened to take over my life. The description is pretty general. If there’s something in here that you think might work for you, but you aren’t clear on how to start, feel free to email me with a specific question.

How have you conquered being Too Busy To Think?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 17th, 2007 at 12:45 am and is filed under Perspective, Life Hacks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.