Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Chunking Your Way to Productivity

The following is adapted from Lisa Haneberg’s (2006) Help Employees Improve Productivity by Teaching Them to Chunk! Focus Like a Laser Beam: 10 Ways to Do What Matters Most.

In most public schools, the pace of work is hectic and spasmodic. Teachers try to juggle a myriad of projects and tasks at once. Multitasking, or trying to do to many things at once, has become the norm. Unfortunately, multitasking is not the solution for coping with numerous priorities and it wrecks focus and productivity.

Studies confirm the downsides of multitasking. Teachers want to do more with less, but when they multitask, they end up doing less with less. When attention is jolted from one task to the next, teachers lose time during the interruption and they need time to get back up to speed with the next task.

Chunking helps teachers focus while allowing them to be responsive. Chunking means carving out segments of time that you will use to focus on one thing. Teachers should strive to schedule and enjoy several focused chunks per week. To enjoy the benefits of chunking, you will need to schedule time chunks ahead of time and exercise resolve to ensure these precious time blocks do not get consumed by interruptions or diversions.

No comments: