People love hacks. And this is a good one.
It will help you burn out faster.
Now, many people would like to avoid burning out.
But not all.
So listen in; and take notes!
If, by chance, you do want to avoid burnout, then, well, toss out your notes.
Focus on doing one thing at a time.
Focus on being present.
It’s the greatest gift that you can give yourself, your clients and customers, and those you love.
You probably move at the speed of life; which these days is likely way too fast.
Like a tiny silver ball in an arcade machine, you ricochet all day long. Bouncing against all of the competing demands. You end up exhausted and depleted only to wake up and do it all over again.
And along the way, you can lose sight of why any of it really matters.
It’s not just about your shoes; or your car keys; or your grocery list; or the appointment you forgot about.
It’s about the magic moments, which is every moment in this brief gift that is your life.
Don’t miss the moments.
You’ve heard of the 10,000 hour rule, yes?
Researched by Anders Ericsson and popularized by Malcolm Gladwell, the 10,000 hour rule suggests that in order to become an expert at something, you need to devote 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to the discipline.
Did you know that the 10,000 hour rule pertains to rest as well?
I didn’t think so.
Because, culturally, success has become defined by how long and hard you work.
“Busy” has become a badge of honor.
Yet… you’re not a machine.
You can’t keep going 24/7/365.
(You wouldn’t do that to your car. Or to your dog.)
It’s not sustainable.
The need for rest is axiomatic; it’s in the research… but few dare talk about it.
Athletes know it. Artists and entertainers know it.
And in your bones, you know it.
You actually need to rest.
Rest is a core component of success you want.
Rest makes you stronger. Better. Sharper. More resilient.
Able to do the work you’re meant to do in the world.
Able to serve the people you’re meant to serve.
Able to truly enjoy this magnificent gift that is your life.
So, yes, play full out. Devote the 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to your craft.
But don’t forget the rest.
I’ve been puttering in my garden. I love my garden. But I find puttering to be a challenge.
You see, I’m a big believer in action: Doing, achieving, accomplishing; moving like a shark lest I perish from inertia.
Steeped, as I am, in the cultural paradigm that, in order to succeed, I need to work longer, harder, faster, it is difficult for me to slow down.
Puttering sometimes seems aimless; pointless; wasteful.
But it’s not.
By puttering, I open up space for myself. I allow my mind to relax. I give myself the opportunity to think, reflect, create… and be.
Just be.
Every business leader we consult with, every professional we coach wants more time; they want – they yearn – for space.
The greatest crisis of our age is not terror in the world; it is the terror that we allow within ourselves.
The greatest crisis of our age is not that we don’t have enough, but that we have too much: too much information; too much noise; too much stimulation; too much to do.
The greatest crisis of our age is that we have lost touch with that that place of quiet, that still point within us.
We’ve lost the capacity to sit still, to be still, to know the beauty and the grandeur of the here and now.
We’ve lost the capacity to be: To just be.
When you give yourself the gift of quiet, when you open up that space, your sense of possibility expands. You see the opportunities that you miss when you are racing to that imaginary finish line.
When you allow your mind – and your body – to relax – ideas flourish, insight lights, you create the ground for moments of “ah-ha.”
Commander Mark Divine, author of The Way of the Seal, teaches that we need the power of silence in order “to set the conditions to win.”
“Silence creates the space for you to think and thus see reality more clearly.”
“If you’ve ever noticed how good you feel after coming out of nature after an extended stay without your cell phone and laptop,” writes Devine, “here’s the reason why: It’s because you’ve slowed down enough to quiet your outer mind, allowing your inner wisdom to poke it’s head out a bit.”
And it is that inner wisdom that truly sets you apart; that allows you to excel and truly succeed at extraordinary levels.
Habit 7 in Stephen Covey’s celebrated business classic, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is Sharpen the Saw. “Sharpen the Saw means preserving and enhancing the greatest asset you have—you,” Covey said.
Self care, self-renewal.
Opening up space.
Puttering.
Sometimes, I like to pretend that I can multitask. Except that I really can’t.
No one can. It’s not physiologically possible.
Certain repetitive, habitual type things, of course, can get done at the same time, like tying your shoes while carrying on a conversation. But two or more things that require focused attention simply can’t be done at once.
What happens, really, when we attempt to do two things at the same time, is that we handle them sequentially; our brains toggle between the tasks.
Some of us can toggle fast.
I’m a really fast toggler.
But there’s a huge cost to toggling.
There’s an energetic cost. It’s wearing to toggle. We end up feeling tired and overwhelmed when we’ve spent our day toggling.
There’s an acuity cost to toggling. It’s not possible to focus well when we’ve got a lot of balls in the air. We make mistakes when we toggle; sometimes catastrophic ones.
There’s a time cost to toggling. Studies show that it takes anywhere from 12 to 20 minutes to re-attend to a task once we’ve been distracted by another task. We’re actually less efficient when we toggle.
There’s a productivity cost to toggling. When we’re trying to do lots of stuff, few things get done to completion; and little gets done well. We’re actually accomplishing less when we toggle, not more.
There’s a human cost to toggling. Toggling causes us to be fragmented, distracted and superficial in our relationships. We fail to show up; we fail to be present; we fail to listen deeply. We dishonor our connection with one another when we toggle.
Toggling causes us to live in a state of continuous partial attention. Distracted. Stressed out. Spread thin. Mentally blurred.
“Deep thinking demands sustaining a focused mind,” Goleman writes in his bestseller Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence.
Peak performers know the power of focus; they harness the power of attention.
They do just one thing; the most important thing. And then they do the next thing. And the next.
If you want to be a peak performer – or if you only want to restore some sense of sanity to your life – stop multitasking.
It costs way too much.
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