Ever heard about Context Switching? It’s probably the single most wasteful part of anyone’s day. The moments it takes to go from one task to another physically can take two or three times as long to get your brain focused onto your next task. Your brain needs to catch up.
The brain seems to long for the past and known. The minute you throw it into a new situation, it initially wants to hold onto the other task. This can sometimes be a superpower! I’ve found that when I am stuck on a task or question, if I walk away to take a break, I am suddenly struck with a solution so simple anyone could have thought of it. The truth is, they didn’t, it was your brain.
The dark side of this little trick, is that when you are nose deep into your day, you may sabotage yourself. Yes, Context Switching is not the worst thing to happen to you that day- I mean, you did just have a Director from Operations stop by to ask about the invoice you said would be paid two weeks ago which happens to still be on your “to do” list and it just so happens that yesterday was Jonna’s birthday which no one remembered and … yes yes yes, you’ve got lots of stuff happening around you. It’s the impact of switching on one’s self ease and accomplishment. If you start a task five times because you keep getting interrupted by Larry from marketing, it will take you five times as long to get back on track. You turn back to your work and there it is, the lack of finishing or (sometimes) even starting the task and it’s been three hours.
How do we combat this? How do we eliminate the time it takes switching tasks? Do we even really care about a few minutes here and there?
I have found the answer to all of these questions is following a calendar. Always create a calendar for your AP monthly process, and always give yourself sectioned hours of the day that you do certain things. You can create daily blocks of time where you know you must do that one thing for twenty minutes without interruption. If your office has conference rooms, hold up in there by yourself for a bit. If you work from home, turn off all other distractions – I know we all watch a little bit of the news while we’re working. Don’t let small pop ups deter you. Get thirty minutes of work done without exhausting your brain and the amount of work you’ll have finished will astonish you.
I block out thirty minutes twice a day to do my work emails. The reason I do it twice a day? I have deadlines at noon and at nine am. If I miss emails before or during these hours, I miss the deadline. I used to check every hour, then would get caught up in emails, realized I couldn’t solve them and put them on the back burner- and you know what happens to the stuff on the backburner? I tend to burn everything back there.
I’m sure there are tons of great resources out there for improving your productivity, and yes they can really help those who need the guidance. I would suggest first, before buying one of those packages, or signing up for a conference to reorganize your life, try to use the tools you use everyday that cost nothing for you to try.
Outlook has some great calendar and task options you can use. There are plenty of Google, Yahoo, and other calendars out there in the world you might already have at your disposal. Check out youtube to see if there are any specific videos regarding the calendar features and task tracking tools you may find helpful.
What is Accounts Payable? 