How to Have a Good Day: Harness the Power of Behavioral Science to Transform Your Working Life pdfdrive com

Batch your tasks.
Group together similar tasks (e.g., email, calls, and
reading), so you’re not constantly switching from one mental mode to
another.
Zone your day.
Decide on the best time of day to tackle each batch of
tasks, including one or two “email zones.” Create longer blocks of
uninterrupted time for your most important work. Can you move some
appointments to create clearer zones?

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Remove distractions.
Minimize interruptions, to help you focus your
attention on the task at hand. Which alerts can you switch off? Can you
use an app to block access to certain websites? Decide on a good
“parking lot” technique to allow you to capture stray thoughts before
they derail your focus.
Plan small rewards for good behavior.
How can you reward yourself
for remaining focused while you singletask—for example, by setting a
timer, or keeping a log?
Share your wisdom.
Can you be proactive in explaining your
scheduling choices to colleagues? (Feel free to try the “a1b2c3…”
exercise with them, to demonstrate why you’ve been keen to multitask
less these days.)

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FIVE
Planning Deliberate Downtime
You look at the clock. Where has the time gone? You’ve got so much to do.
Your eyes burn and your mind wanders. You can’t even remember the last time
you stretched your legs. But you have to keep going, you tell yourself, to make
the most of the hours in the day.
Or do you? Do you really squeeze more productivity out of yourself by
powering through your weariness? Since I’m posing this question, you probably
know where this is going: the answer is no. It might go against our instincts, but
making the most of the day doesn’t mean churning away nonstop. In fact, the
science shows that we’re more productive if we give ourselves periods of
downtime between our bursts of hard work.
There are two aspects to this argument. The first is that your brain’s deliberate
system needs regular breaks and fuel to keep it fully functional. The second is
that when you’re “resting”—that is, not actively engaged in a task—your brain is
in fact busy helping you learn and reach new insight. Let me explain those two
points a little more, before talking about what this means for you in practice.