How to Balance Real Work Expectations: Focus and Push

Multitasking is not a thing.  You can only do one thing at a time well so you might as well plan out all of the necessary steps to get everything done.  Right?  You can also take this a step further to ensure that you have enough time each week to handle big projects that seem to get put on the back burner.  Here’s how.

Focus: Block off 3-4 hours FOCUSING on just one project once or twice per week.   With this uninterrupted time, you’ll be able to think and delve deep into a project.  We all have those projects where you need to research an idea to make a proposal or develop a presentation for a conference.  You know what I’m talking about – the projects where you feel you need to hang a sign on your door that reads “Do NOT Disturb” or “Out of the office; Back at noon.” By blocking off time to focus on one thing, you can take the time to do that one big thing that keeps getting pushed back each week because your other responsibilities – the squeaky wheel gets the oil! – gobble up your time.

Push: By setting aside focus time, the other 34-36 hours can be productively spent PUSHING individual tasks and putting out fires. You can make preemptive phone calls, collect data, handle emails, and oh yeah, manage the onslaught of interruptions by employees, coworkers, supervisors, and clients. There’s no way around answering questions, making calls, returning emails and general business tasks so handle them around your focus time.

The best way to make sure that you, and your coworkers, respect your focus time is to block off a permanent time each week in your planner for the whole year.  Enter your plans for each focus time to ensure that you’re meeting your deadlines and then stick to them.  Use a sign or send an email that staves off interruptions so you really can complete your project during the allotted time.

You’ll find that you’ll be more productive, meet your deadlines, and most importantly, be happier when you block off time to handle the various types of projects you need to complete. For me, I either get to the office before the staff arrives, or I stay later after everyone is gone, to ensure that I have my focus blocks of time.  I always feel productive when I’m done and I enjoy my daily pushing of tasks much more when I don’t have heavy projects weighing in on me.