Single Tasking is a Powerful Tool plus Nancy is a Ninja!

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Single-tasking is the new multi-tasking…I am so glad we are recognizing this. I could relate so much to this video… I hate reading blogs with a lot of links because I totally forget why I started reading in the first place. I am so glad this is a thing and not just my age. I much prefer a book or an article because then I only have one thing to focus on and don’t get lost in the array of links. So many of us can relate to multi-tasking not only at work but at home with such busy schedules. Like Catherine stated in her blog, We can all relate to trying to watch TV and scrolling on our phones and we have no idea what we are even watching.

I really feel bad for kids these days because parents are so busy multi-tasking few have time to be really present. It is a sad world when we have to learn how to be present for our children. But I am very grateful people are starting to take note and take back their time.

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I was also really grateful to Nancy for her excellent advice on her blog this week (I didn’t realize she is a Productivity Ninja and is a workshop trainer for a company called Think Productive based on the book How to be a Productivity Ninja— so talented!). If you haven’t watched it, I highly recommend it! My big take aways from this great blog were:

1. Multitasking is inefficient. It is much better to solo task. She gives a great analysis that puts this into perspective. In her workshops, partners are asked to perform a thumbwar and rock paper scissors at the same time. Of course who can do that? So if we can’t do that, how do we expect to be productive doing so many things at once at work, or at home. I really thought that was powerful. When I solo task I feel like I accomplish so much more because I am thoroughly focused and engaged in one activity– I am present. This is exactly what we teach people when we teach them to be mindful. The definition of mindful is the quality or state of being conscious or aware of something. We learn to focus one our awareness on one thing using our senses and it is so powerful. We cannot truly be aware of something if we aren’t giving it our full attention. I am grateful people are becoming aware of this and taking the time to be present, mindful and focused.

1. Be Weapon Savvy– there are so many tools out there and it takes time and energy to learn them all. Plus, if you are like me, you become overwhelmed with all of the features etc. I need to keep it simple. Her advice is to keep it in one place. She uses Evernote. I may have to check this out as I am not Weapon Savvy yet. I still keep things in multiple places. My main storage places are on an actual wall calendar because I need the visual tool and I still physically like to write. But I also have a lot of folders just on my phone because I always have my phone with me. I have a lot of different folders just in my notes on my phone which I refer to daily– I actually even journal on my Notes in my phone so I have different categories on it in there. At work, everything is in my day planner/calendar. I like to still physically write things out.
2. Protect Mental Health— out of all the messages this is the most important one to me. Without your health, mental, physical and spiritual you actually have nothing. I think this is one area in my life I have learned to master. I am dedicated to this part of my life. I am at the gym daily, I meditate, drink 16 oz of celery juice every morning, take many supplements, meditate daily. Lately, I have found that I really need to “unplug”from everything in the world. Between Covid-19 and all the political craziness we are bombarded with, I have had to take a step back from social media and find a new goal to focus on. So this week I created a new fitness goal at the gym and hired a trainer to help me. This will be a big focus for me which I need to get through during this time. It gives me something to look forward to and is sustained focus. It was a great decision for me as I can easily turn away from all the negativity in the outside world and just work on my reps and sets. It will be my own physical, mental and spiritual productivity suite.

4. Pomodoro– Nancy suggested using pomodoro techniques which means to set a timer and focus on one specific task for an extended period of time. This works for me. I set a timer to meditate. I set time aside to journal and I set time aside to train. I also have found to train I need to be phyically in a gym because that time and space is set aside specifically for that reason which gives me a focus. I can get in, get it done, get out and get on with the rest of my day. I also find for me I need to what I call “chunk” my day which was a strategy I learned from my journey with meditation. Really all it is, is organizing your day into chunks in which you know what you are doing and expected to accomplish. This allows me to focus on the task at hand. In a classroom, it is just like a visual schedule so your students know what is next and how long they focus on that subject for. That way you give that extended amount of time on that specific task.

I am grateful for the review of all the productivity suites from this weeks group. I did some fooling around with flippity and created a quiz show for my students this week. There is a lot of really great templates on there.

As for Google Suite and Microsoft Office, I think it is your own personal preference. After watching this video, I really would like to try more of Microsoft Office. When it comes to Power Point, I liked the annotation tools and the assistive tech pieces built into it compared to Google Slides. Office 365 seems more user friendly, smooth and easy to work with compared to Google Slides. I also seemed to like the whiteboard features on Microsoft. I liked that the whiteboard was infinite and it had some great collaborative features. You could also add images, text, sticky notes etc. Google Jamboard was similar except you only have slides, the board isn’t infinite. I use jamboard quite often and it is pretty slick. I would really love to try Microsoft Whiteboard. Again, all of it is just based on personal preference. Simplicity and ease is key for me.

Take Care,

Lisa