This recession has had a seriously negative impact on those who’ve been laid off—that’s obvious-- but also upon those who’ve been retained. Recent statistics report a high level of fear among workers today. That means that employees will be putting their best foot forward, and working hard and long to show their bosses that they are worthy of retention.
Fears of potential job loss often reinforce the need to work faster and faster and take on more and more work. That can jeopardize our ability to perform at a high level. Fears keep us from what Thomas Eriksen calls “slow time.” Slow time, what I call “think time,” is the kind of time and space that gives you an opportunity to consider your tasks and projects in the detailed, focused and unhurried ways that make possible high performance.
On numerous occasions, execs have complained to me that they don’t have the time to think about strategic issues, and that they need to create that opportunity for themselves. That’s been true for execs over the past 20 years, although it’s exacerbated in this environment. Senior execs, who have been forced to lay-off people are often in deep pain, with little to no think time available. This economy is not just about the people who’ve gotten laid off.
But many workers, with only two or three years in the workforce, also face the loss of think time—a loss that shows up in their performance and negatively in the performance of the organization.
FYI: Teresa Amabile of Harvard Business School, one of the most knowledgeable persons on business creativity, has studied the impact of downsizing on performance. She finds that project creativity often takes a heavy hit in an environment decimated by lay-offs and fear.
Triage your tasks
You’re going to have to be clear about your objectives in order to get needed think time. In other words, put the key things you want to accomplish into your schedule first, so that everything else falls in line. One of the important tasks for an overloaded employee is figuring out what you can say no to. Of course, you’ll want to talk over your schedule with your manager to gain his/her support. But don’t go to that meeting half-cocked. Be clear about your reasoning, and ready to answer your manager’s questions.
Change your work rhythm
Many experts suggest a simple two-by-two matrix to identify your priority tasks.
- Urgent and important tasks.
- Not urgent, but important tasks.
- Urgent, but not important tasks.
- Not urgent and not important tasks.
The more time you give to important, but not urgent work, the more control you have over your schedule. Specifically, it means you’ll be giving less time to putting out fires. But why do so many of us have difficulty reducing the time we spend on urgent, but unimportant tasks? Stephen Rechtschaffen’s book, Timeshifting, has a unique response to that question. He suggests the answer has to do with entrainment.
FYI: Christian Huygens, a Dutch scientist, found back in 1665, that when two pendulum clocks are placed side by side on the wall, they influence each other. Even though he swung the pendulums at a different rate, they would eventually end up swinging at the same rate, what he called entrainment.
Once you’re in a rhythm, you’ll tend to stay in synchronization with that rhythm. The result is that 1, 3, and 4 activities (see above), which we manage at a high level of speed, continues into other tasks that need think time—slow time. If we’re working really fast in 1, 3, and 4, then when we get to 2—the important, but not urgent tasks—we have difficulty focusing on those tasks.
Initially, I though Rechtschaffen was nuts. However, as I observed myself I found that when I should be using think time to great advantage, or maybe needed to get creative, I was attempting to work at the same speed as I had in most settings. That dog wouldn't hunt.
When I slowed down, I reminded myself that time is of the essence, that I need to keep up my fast pace, so I don’t succumb to guilt. As a result, it was difficult to slow down and my creative work suffered. My feelings hijacked me. In Rechtschaffen’s terms, my feelings created a perpetual motion machine. There are just some situations in which we need to deal with those feelings.
What I’ve learned is that different tasks require different rhythms. So when, for example, I’ve got some creative work to do, I gear down to a different rhythm. Sometimes, I merely get up from my desk and take a walk, head for the coffee shop to talk to some of my cronies, or listen to Mozart. It’s still difficult to switch from my lightning pace to think time pace, but I’ve made serious headway in the process.
For Managers:
The all-time most popular Harvard Business Review Article: Who's Got The Monkey Available free on the web