Do one sort of work at a time

I have several kinds of work on my to-do list for today. I’ve been writing and scheduling an entire week’s worth of Vanderhacks posts. I need to practice a speech, prepare to interview someone for a podcast, and edit/approve the landing page for an upcoming time tracking challenge.

I will admit, as I have been writing and formatting five posts, that I thought maybe I should practice the speech in the middle. Isn’t it nice to have a little variety? Won’t variety boost my energy? Perhaps, but if I need a break I can take a real break. In general, doing one sort of work at a time is more efficient and ultimately helps you get more done.

This is because switching between different kinds of work carries cognitive costs. If I practiced my speech, I would then have to get back into writing mode afterwards. It wouldn’t take long to remember how to put in photos and subheads and all that jazz, but it does take some additional effort if one has been doing other things. Constantly switching leads to a feeling of exhaustion.

Doing one sort of work at a time also helps if you do get interrupted. If I know I’m working on Vanderhacks, and a child texts with an urgent request, I can get right back into Vanderhacks afterwards. Whereas if I’m going between different things, who knows what I should do next. There’s more decision-making involved, and again, this makes work more exhausting.

I know this is time-blocking by another name, but I tend not to do a ton of formal time blocking. My schedule is fairly open — by design. On a day when I have a lot of interviews, I will decide to do one sort of work between, say, a 1:00-1:30 p.m. interview and a 2:30-3:00 p.m. interview. But whenever I can, I put most of my scheduled events on 1-2 days a week, or later in the afternoon, so hours in the morning and early afternoon are open. I like this feeling of time freedom.

But I also like the feeling of flow, and so to use this time freedom to create flow, it’s best to focus on one sort of work. Do it until it’s done, and then move on.