If you have never done the math, it might amaze you how quickly time adds up. You can easily lose precious seconds and perform needless mouse clicks by:
- having to navigate folders or web pages for content
- waiting for web pages to load
- making mistakes
- having to repeat an action
BUT …
The #1 thing that causes us to lose time is: Switching Tasks
The brain is an incredible machine, but for many people switching tasks from one task to another is not conducive to maximum performance.
If the tasks are similar, the cost of switching is less. If the two kinds of tasks are very different the cost is much greater. ‘Cost’ in this context refers both to time and performance.
The goal of optimizing your workflow then, is to help minimize the number of times you switch between tasks or the number of times you switch from one kind of task to another. For example, from a creative task to a mundane non-creative task.
For more information on this, search “task switching” or you can read this article.
To help you see a more complete picture, here are some numbers you might find interesting. You can use the forms below to estimate how much time you might be losing … one lost second or one needless click at a time.
