Minimize Mental Drag to Help You Do Your Job at Its Best
Trying to work as efficiently as possible with your distracted brain is like trying to swim for a gold medal without a cap. Divided attention is like a thick head of hair that constantly interferes with your thoughts. You have to approach your workflow in the same way – removing the things that drag you down.
This post originally appeared on James Clear’s blog .
Let’s take a look at one example of an Olympic swimmer who faced a lot of problems. Dana Vollmer has had a rocky road to the Olympics – Vollmer is an Olympic swimmer, but it’s not just a grueling training schedule that has made her journey to the top difficult. At the age of 15, Vollmer discovered that she had a heart condition known as long QT syndrome. Later that year, she underwent heart surgery, but the operation did not eliminate the risk of heart failure. (Even today, her mother watches the swimming competition from the stands with a defibrillator between her legs.)
When Vollmer finally qualified for the Women’s 100m Butterfly at the 2012 London Olympics, her heart caught all the attention. She had no idea that the problem was in her head.
As soon as Vollmer entered the pool in the 100m final, her swimming cap was removed.
Professional swimmers wear latex swim caps that cover their heads tightly to reduce drag in the water. Almost every swimmer wears them, but swimming caps are especially important for women swimmers. If a swimmer loses her cap and her hair spreads into the water, this can significantly increase the resistance she has to swim with during the swim. In a competitive race like the Olympic final, this extra resistance force can be the difference between winning and losing.
This is why almost all professional swimmers wear not one but two caps. This is exactly what Vollmer did. Although her top swim cap came off, her second cap remained in place, allowing her not only to avoid disaster, but also to win a gold medal and set a new world record in the process. ( Another reason swimmers wear two hats is to keep their goggles from knocking off when they jump into the water.)
Now on to the real fun. What does wearing a swim cap have to do with a better life?
Physical resistance versus mental resistance
Imagine that your brain is a computer. At the start of the day, your brain turns on and you have 100 percent of the computer’s memory available for use in your life. The only problem is that every time you add a task to your to-do list, a small portion of your computer’s memory is spent on that task.
If you open your email in the morning and see three messages that you need to reply to later, your computer is using three percent of its memory. If you need to remember to take your child to workout after school, or pick him up from the dry cleaning, or go to the grocery store, you will have a little more memory. The more tasks remain unfinished, the more memory is used to memorize, reflect, worry, and plan those tasks.
Here’s a twist: If your brain is constantly busy with all of these secondary tasks, how much memory do you have left to do meaningful work? 70 percent? 50 percent? Even less?
Trying to work as efficiently as possible with your distracted brain is like trying to swim for a gold medal without a cap. Divided attention is like a thick head of hair that constantly interferes with your thoughts. Focus your attention on too many directions and you will be paralyzed .
Swimmers understand that if they want to show their best, they need to get out of their way. They need to cover the object that creates resistance – their hair – for the race. Does this mean they have bad hair? No, of course not. Likewise, there is nothing “wrong” in your daily to-do list, family responsibilities, or taking care of lifelong emergencies. It’s just that when you want to do your best, you have to make an informed choice and put these things aside for a few moments.
How can we expect to perform at our best when we constantly struggle with mental burdens?
How to reduce the force of resistance holding you back
I don’t consider myself an expert on maximum performance. I am working on these issues as you are. We are on this journey together. But I’ve taken a few steps to give myself a better chance of hitting the bull’s-eye in my own work, and I’m happy to share them with you. Here’s what suits me:
Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time
I have noticed that my creative energy is highest in the morning. That’s when I’m fresh. That’s when I try to write my best. This is when I make the best strategic decisions about my business. So what should I do? I plan creative assignments for the morning . All other business tasks are solved in the afternoon. This includes conducting interviews, answering emails, phone calls and Skype chats, data analysis and number processing. Almost every productivity strategy strives to better manage your time, but time is useless if you don’t have the energy you need to complete the task you’re working on.
Never Check Email Before Noon
Personally, if I don’t check my email early in the day, I can spend the morning pursuing my own goals rather than reacting to others. This is a huge win because I don’t waste my mental energy thinking about all the messages in my inbox. I understand that waiting until noon is impossible for many – work and email are intertwined for many – but I would like to suggest a problem. Can you wait until 10am? What about 9 in the morning? 8:30 am? Don’t get hung up on exact deadlines. The point of this strategy is to allow yourself to do a little work in the morning on what matters most to you, without letting the rest of the world dictate your mental state.
Leave your phone in another room
I usually don’t see my phone in the first few hours of the day. It’s much easier to do focused work when you don’t have text messages, phone calls, or alerts to distract you.
Working in full screen mode
Almost all applications on my computer run in full screen mode. If I read an article on the Internet, my browser takes up the entire screen. If I write in Evernote, I work in full screen mode. If I edit an image in Photoshop, this is the only thing I see. I configured my desktop so that the menu bar disappears automatically. When I work, I cannot see the time, other application icons, or any other distractions on the screen. It’s funny how big the difference is. If you see an icon on the screen, you will be reminded to click it from time to time. However, if you remove the visual cue, the urge to be distracted will subside after a few minutes.
Get rid of tasks that can distract you from your morning attention
I love to do the most important things every day first, because the things of the day haven’t crept in yet. I went a little far in this regard and even postponed my first meal until about noon every day. I’ve been on intermittent fasting for three years now, which means I usually eat most of my food between 12:00 and 20:00. As a result, I have extra time in the morning to do focused work rather than making breakfast.
Do creative work first.
The best way to avoid mental stress is to give yourself time and space for important work before distractions can creep into your day.
The single most important change you can make to your work habits is to switch to creative work first and then reactive work. This means that you should set aside most of your time each day to creatively work on your priorities by turning off your phone and email.
–Mark McGuinness, Manage Your Daily Routines
Creating meaningful work is difficult, even under optimal circumstances. Put on a swimming cap and remove any distractions for a while. Give yourself the opportunity to do your best.
Never Check Your Email Before Noon (And Other Thoughts On The Best Way To Work) | James Clear