To follow up on "The Switching Costs"
I took the whole entire complete day off yesterday. I haven't done that in forever, because there is always work to do and work is well . . . what I do, what I have always done as an adult to be valuable and important, so I can humble-brag my significance to the universe. I understand I don't have to be busy (read The Switching Cost) to be important. But there aren't many people believing this, even as I am trying to figure it out myself.
I was at dinner with a client this past week and he was telling me how one of his main engineers just calls him regularly to tell him how busy he is. The phone call goes something like this (and I am quoting) ring ring, my client answers and barely can spit out a hello before the engineer yells from the other end, ". . . man we are so f*cking f*cking f*cking busy, we are going out of our heads, f*ck f*ck f*ck" and the engineer hangs up. (Sorry about all the F bombs, but this was a quote)
Yes I would consider this an extreme example, but this actually happens in the real world, over and over. Everyone is too busy, and that is a poor decision. We need something other. My friend and co-worker Bernie calls this white space, a place where nothing can happen and there is no pressure for anything to happen, which allows for the amazing to happen sometimes. And I brushed up against that white space yesterday when I did . . . well nothing at all. Gonna try it again tomorrow.
But what I noticed most significantly yesterday as I was having a total complete do nothing day, were the costs of switching. It became so apparent when I switched to what was going on in my dad's head when he called from the USA, to switching to the challenges that my wife is facing in her ginormous work with women, to switching to what was going on in my own head! I wasn't switching tasks as much as I was just switching my focus from one person's focus to the next person's focus, and it took me forever it seemed to start tracking (truly) with the next person. So The Cost of Switching became far more apparent, when I only had to do three big giant switches in a single day, rather than the constant switching that I apparently do so much each day that it feels like the norm. So if you ain't getting this, take a "do nothing day" or even half day, and watch for the switches. They will be much more apparent.
I took the whole entire complete day off yesterday. I haven't done that in forever, because there is always work to do and work is well . . . what I do, what I have always done as an adult to be valuable and important, so I can humble-brag my significance to the universe. I understand I don't have to be busy (read The Switching Cost) to be important. But there aren't many people believing this, even as I am trying to figure it out myself.
I was at dinner with a client this past week and he was telling me how one of his main engineers just calls him regularly to tell him how busy he is. The phone call goes something like this (and I am quoting) ring ring, my client answers and barely can spit out a hello before the engineer yells from the other end, ". . . man we are so f*cking f*cking f*cking busy, we are going out of our heads, f*ck f*ck f*ck" and the engineer hangs up. (Sorry about all the F bombs, but this was a quote)
Yes I would consider this an extreme example, but this actually happens in the real world, over and over. Everyone is too busy, and that is a poor decision. We need something other. My friend and co-worker Bernie calls this white space, a place where nothing can happen and there is no pressure for anything to happen, which allows for the amazing to happen sometimes. And I brushed up against that white space yesterday when I did . . . well nothing at all. Gonna try it again tomorrow.
But what I noticed most significantly yesterday as I was having a total complete do nothing day, were the costs of switching. It became so apparent when I switched to what was going on in my dad's head when he called from the USA, to switching to the challenges that my wife is facing in her ginormous work with women, to switching to what was going on in my own head! I wasn't switching tasks as much as I was just switching my focus from one person's focus to the next person's focus, and it took me forever it seemed to start tracking (truly) with the next person. So The Cost of Switching became far more apparent, when I only had to do three big giant switches in a single day, rather than the constant switching that I apparently do so much each day that it feels like the norm. So if you ain't getting this, take a "do nothing day" or even half day, and watch for the switches. They will be much more apparent.
