Productivity & Time Management Training, Speaking, Consulting

Today’s post is from a big thinker on human development and potential, Shawn Thomas, M. Ed., M.S., who also happens to be my wonderful husband.  He’s written a very interesting article about what it takes to change your behavior, and the struggle between our internal “planner” vs. “do-er.”

In their book, Nudge,  about decision making, Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein describe the planner and the doer. The planner and the doer exists within each of us. As an example, the authors describe the planner as the part of us that sets the alarm clock at night with the intent of getting up early in the morning to exercise. The doer is the part of us that in the morning either hits the snooze button 4 times, or gets us out of bed to implement the planner’s plan.

Many of us have set our alarm again and again with great intentions only to have our sleepy doers foil our attempts to do something good for ourselves. And all of us tend to blame our doers for this lack of well-intentioned action. It is our doers, after all, that are ineffective at getting us out of that nice, warm bed and into our running shoes or the gym. It seems like the doer is at fault when we fail at implementing our plans and achieving our goals. But the real problem may lie with the planner. Any successful leader or manager can tell you that motivation is one of the most important keys to getting things done. In addition, they will tell you that part of their job is understanding exactly what motivates each of their employees. Therefore, one very important part of our planner’s job is to understand what will motivate our doer to take action. And this is especially true in situations where the action to be taken is challenging.

Let’s go back to the example of getting out of bed early enough to exercise before work and add an example of motivation. Getting out of bed to exercise in the morning can be especially difficult for anyone who is unaccustomed to the gym. One of the most significant barriers to exercise is a lack of experience or knowledge. Knowing that we may lack the sufficient experience or knowledge to feel comfortable using the gym equipment provides us with a good indicator of the motivation necessary to get us to the gym. In this case it would be best for us to have a plan in place to meet with a personal trainer who can guide us through the exercises that provide the best chance of helping us meet our goals. With the added motivation of having a knowledgeable personal trainer waiting to provide us with assistance, and the commitment we made to meet them there, we stand a much better chance of getting ourselves out of that comfortable bed.

Take some time to think about things that you would like to change. Identify in each case the work currently being done by your internal planner and doer. More than likely, if you identify things you’ve wanted to change for some time but have not found success at doing so, you have identified a problem for your planner to solve. Your next step then is to identify some things that will ensure that your doer has the proper motivation to take the right actions and get things done. Once you have identified the proper motivation, make completely sure that it is incorporated into your plans and you will soon find that you are finally making progress toward achieving your goals.

Thanks for reading!

I’m very excited to announce that I am a finalist in Networlding’s BizBookPitchFest 2010!  This is a contest to help an unpublished thought-leader become a published author.  The judges were authors and publishing industry veterans Steve Farber, Kevin Small, Sarah Miller Caldicott, Melissa Giovagnoli, and Brett Farmiloe.  Below is the premise of the book I’m writing.  As it seems that everything is these days, the contest is using the “crowdsourcing” model, which means that public feedback will help determine the winner, just like American Idol.  So I need your help!  If you think that the book as I’ve outlined it below is something you’d be interested to read, please go here and vote for me (ok, even if you don’t plan to read the book, will you vote for me anyway? =).  To vote, visit this page, scroll all the way to the bottom, and where it reads, “Submit a Comment,” type: “VOTE: Maura Thomas.” You can comment (vote) as a guest by filling in your first name and your email (your email address will NOT be published.)

I appreciate your help!

Book-in-Process:  Control Your Attention, Control Your Life:  Succeeding in the Attention Age

Summary:

Change is upon us.  Technology is evolving faster than ever before, and the sheer volume of
information to manage is staggering.  Digital Convergence is changing the way we communicate
and learn.  Although technology evolves very quickly, our brains evolve very slowly, and the rapid advance in technology over the last 40 years is shaping that evolution.  It is literally rewiring our brains.  The old ideas of multitasking and time management in the “Information Age” are being replaced by new ideas of focus and the Attention Age.  The secret of productivity, of getting things done, of living the life we want now comes down to the ability to manage our attention.  And this is much more complicated than a calendar and an address book, or even the latest gadget or app. It requires greater knowledge of how our brains work, an understanding of the demands on our attention, and a rich, but uncomplicated, arsenal of behaviors, techniques, and technology.

The idea used to be that information overload was the problem.  My work illustrates that itʼs not
the volume of information that exists, itʼs the fact that information is NO LONGER PASSIVE.  It
gets pushed into our consciousness and competes for our attention.  Consider this:

• In 2008, nearly 6,000 people died, and over a half million were injured in distraction-related driving accidents.
• 62% of at-work email users report checking work email on the weekends, and over 50% check it on vacation.
• More than one in twenty U.S. adults surveyed nationally said their relationships have suffered from excessive use of the Internet. (Stanford University School of Medicine Study, Impulse Control Disorders Clinic)

Letʼs face it.  Our lives are out of control.  Most days, we donʼt make decisions about how we
spend each minute or each hour or each day.  Those decisions are made for us, by our phone, our email, or any of the other unrelenting bits of communication and information that insert themselves into our lives every minute of every day, which are designed to steal our attention from us. And if we donʼt make decisions about the minutes or the hours or the days, then weʼre at risk for losing control over our lives.  Why should you give up the decision over one single second of your precious life?  Studies show that people who exert cognitive control more often, report happier lives.  This book is your key. It will contain step-by-step instructions to learn to control attention by effectively managing the details of a busy life (commitments, communication, and information), discussing not only a behavioral methodology but also incorporating paper, PC, Mac, handheld, and cloud-based solutions.

Thanks for reading, and please don’t forget to vote!

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Social media is changing the way we communicate, make connections, and develop friendships.  Digital convergence is changing the way we learn, think, and behave.  The old ideas about “time management” and multi-tasking are no longer working.  In fact, they seem to be making things worse.  Some of the first studies showing that multi-tasking takes longer and decreases the quality of output came out almost a decade ago.  It’s now widely accepted among researchers and scientists that constant multi-tasking even makes us worse at multi-tasking!  The more we do it, the worse we get…at everything.  The problem is that we have become so accustomed to instant gratification of our curiosity and our mental whims, that we have undermined our own ability to focus.  New terms have been created to describe the fact that we are essentially giving ourselves Attention Deficit Disorder.  And it’s almost impossible to control your “time” (and there are only 24 hours in every day anyway), until you can control your attention.

Digital convergence, the idea that all types of different technologies are merging into one ubiquitous “presence,” means that it’s almost impossible to escape the demands on our attention.  And make no mistake, not only is more information being created than ever before, but it’s also being pushed to us in ways that are designed to take our attention from us.  Virtually every new technology has some feature to get information in front of you, whether by popping up on your computer screen or handheld device, or by ringing, buzzing, or vibrating within earshot.  Website creators speak in terms of “eyeballs” (get you to look at it) and “click-throughs” (get you to click on it).  Marketers speak in terms of “taglines” and “calls to action” (make you notice and then do something).  Have you ever noticed that commercials come on louder than the programming?   The ability to write “attention grabbing headlines” is a valuable skill.  New ways to get you to notice information are being invented and refined every day.  The term “demands on your attention” was never more appropriate.

The philosopher William James was noted for saying, “my experience is what I agree to attend to.”  But with the increasing adoption of ever-present technology, often times we don’t “agree” to attend to anything.  We spend our days simply reacting to whatever happens to be buzzing, blinking, or vibrating in front of us.  But if we’re not in control of our attention, can we really be in control of our lives?

So we’re moving into a new era.  The “Information Age” is being replaced by the Attention Age, where attention is becoming the most valuable commodity, and focus the most valuable skill.  But the ability to focus is like any other skill, if it’s not practiced, it’s lost.  Children are showing signs of being easily bored without constant stimulation, and teenagers are scoring poorly on cognitive functioning tests designed to determine their reasoning and critical thinking skills, the kinds of skills that require deep thought and reflection.

The work we do at RegainYourTime.com is evolving with this societal change.  Our training is designed to raise awareness about these issues, and call attention to individual behaviors that sabotage our client’s success, rather than support it.  For more information about presentations or training on attention management, and others related to personal productivity and effective workflow processes, please click the links, explore the site, or contact us for a chat.  We’d love to discuss it with you.