Juggle, Switch, and Pivot!
Switch! Switch now! Not tomorrow! I remember my basketball coach yelling those words without ceasing in a hot sweat box of a gym every September. He, of course, meant leave the person that I was guarding and guard someone else immediately. Who knew that the ability to "switch" on a dime would be a critical skill in the workplace of 2007? But this is a different kind of switching.
Work was once a place. Now, work is a state of mind. Work is a frame of mind that we need to be able to switch on and off quickly and with ease. The ability to mentally switch, juggle and pivot is a new requirement for what has historically been called "work life balance". The blackberry is not the problem. Our brains are the problem. We have not yet adapted to this new world in which work is a state of mind as opposed to a physical place.
Let's play compare and contrast. While at home, executive one sees his blackberry buzz, looks, and sees 18 new emails. He quickly zeroes in on the one that matters most (skillful switch) and responds. He mentally filters out the other 17 (juggles) and goes back to cleaning the garage (pivot). Executive two sees the blackberry buzz and responds to all 17 emails. Then, he then makes three phone calls all of which could have been done more effectively the next morning (unskillful switch). You get the picture. Which executive are you?
How do you move to a higher level of skill at the new game of juggling, switching, and pivoting?
Get over the idea of leaving work in any building.
Attempting to get balance with a mindset as outdated as Leave It to Beaver will not help you achieve any form of balance. Having the expectation that you can go home and not think about work until the morning is just setting you up for failure. Finding balance and being successful requires creativity and adjusting to the new rules of the game.
Use props to help you skillfully switch when you are at home.
I have one client who goes into a specific room in his house when he needs to handle a work issue. When he leaves that room, he switches his mindset. Personally, I take my glasses off when I need to get out of work mode. Never mind that I can't read the menu.
Set aside blocks of uninterrupted time to think.
The best jugglers, switchers, and pivoters knowwhen to quit. The" juggle switch and pivot method" is highly effective in managing a lot of routine issues. However, the dividing line between excellence and just good is about thinking at a higher, more creative level about complex issues. When was the last time you set aside an hour to just think about your most difficult or complicated issue?
