The Wpromoter

Doing Less (and Getting More Done) – My 2009 Resolution – Part One

Amanda Moshier | January 5th, 2009

Greetings, and Happy 2009! Happy New Year!

If you’re like most people, you are returning to work today after a very long weekend. Some of you are excited, some of you are tired, and some of you feel no different at all, almost as if it’s just another day.

Still others are embarking upon the challenge of sticking to their resolutions.

In writing my list of resolutions this year, I realized I was really making a list of goals. As important as goals are (they shape our lives, motivate our actions, and help define who we are), I decided that my goals deserve a separate list, and I started to think about this resolution thing in a whole new way.

Taking the advice of many a wellness and productivity expert, I decided this year will be the year to focus on managing my time more effectively (which will give me MORE time to reach my goals), and a large part of this involves doing less.

Yes, I said it: I’m going to do less in the effort to get more done – but don’t worry, it’s not as bad as it sounds. Read on.

The CPA (Continuous Partial Attention) Crisis and Why Multitasking = Death

If you’ve been paying attention in recent years, there has been lots of talk about the downside of multitasking and the problems that result from going through our every day lives with “continuous partial attention” aka “CPA.” I’ll explain more about these two things later; for now, all you really need to know is that multitasking is not all its cracked up to be, and the technologies we use to stay connected and plugged in (lightweight laptops, iPhones, email, IM, etc.) may actually be hurting our ability to get things done.

“But IM is so convenient!” you say and “My iPhone lets me do work on the fly!” and “Email is so much faster than a phone call – why should I waste my time?,” etc. There are a litany of reasons to cling to our Blackberries, netbooks, and Internet-enabled mobile phones (and lots of scenarios we can drum up to support our reasoning), but are you doing yourself a favor or shooting yourself in the foot by staying constantly connected?

Come back to find out!

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