Saturday, February 25, 2017

Distractions and Information Technology


A friend of mine who is in accounting told me he read a lot of articles on being more productive and avoiding distraction. So he said he is going to try a bunch and tell me the best ones then send them over if they seemed to help. I am of a skeptical nature so I figured he would come back and tell me none of them worked. I read some of those same articles and lots of times I think they are just not practical for real world working conditions. Well he came back and said some of them really helped him and he sent me some links to read.

One of them was how to avoid distractions and stay focused… Ok sure. Some great tips in there, keep your office clean and well lit and post a quiet Mantra that you can look at and try to calm yourself with. But the rest of them are not ideal for anyone in the Information Technology world. One tip was to turn off the internet… that is where all the links are that I need to do my job! All my monitoring tools and all my remote connections to different locations all come from some links in the interwebs. Next tip: Turn off your cell phone. Not possible. Sadly if you have 4 ways for someone to reach you when you are in a support role in IT they will find a fifth way and reach you there! Facebook and tweeting, no that’s out, I do not use them and I try to avoid them I know they are worthless and time drains when working. But texts I do get occasionally. However I make sure to tell them to call the help line or send an email. You cannot track a text or store it for future reference and that is important. So I make sure to manage the person and help them understand that yes text is fast but we don’t do text for support.

Now lots of studies are coming out and saying now that Multi tasking really doesn’t work and it sometimes hurts productivity rather than help. I can agree with that and I can understand that but when it comes to support for IT multitasking is a must and it happens. Trying to concentrate on one task at a time is the best way but does not always work in the IT world. As you’re focusing on trying to clean up an active directory list, a server might go down that you cannot wait on, so you have to become good at marking where you left off and be able to pivot really quickly to that server problem to fix it. Or a phone system might stop working at a location you manage while you’re trying to write up some technical reference guides for your team, save that document, you need to fix that phone system and figure out what the issue is. So yes is multitasking bad? Maybe but when it comes to support work in IT you don’t have a choice. Many things happen at once and you have to be able to stop and jump into whatever event has arisen and resolve the crisis.

I started reading the other article that he sent over and it was something about the habits of productive people. I read the first 2 bullets and stopped right there. The article says email is a big time waster. Don’t do it in the morning. This is also not possible in a support role, tickets come by email. Important vendor related issues come by email, Internet providers send new install contracts by email. Email is a vital function for IT. Maybe for a journalist or someone else it’s just junk and you can dictate that email is done later, but not in IT. I do however agree with one thing: If the email goes more than 2 replies, pick up the phone to resolve, emails will get things confused and can be a lazy way out. The last thing I read on that article made me laugh and it sounds completely made up like the author is trying to scare people. It said: Changing tasks more than 10 times a day drops your I.Q. 10 points. If that is the case than after 20 years of IT work, I should have no memory left and not be able to remember my own phone number… Wrong! I remember lots of stuff, and to keep myself sharp I challenge myself to use my brain. I do not use a password manager. I use different passwords and force myself to remember them without writing them down if possible. I strive to remember phone numbers and account numbers, and even how the boss takes his coffee! That is a soft skill of critical thinking that I like to make sure is always sharp and ready. So I do not think that statement is true and that article was deleted without being fully read through.

One thing that I did read, I found on my own and I sent it over to my buddy. He really liked what is said and was going to try to live it. I was going to work on living it too; I felt it was a powerful message. That is even if you’re doing a task that to you seems trivial and meaningless in your job, do it 110 percent. Strive to do everything at 110 percent no matter what it is, do not take shortcuts. This was advice given by a very successful CEO, who started his career as a waiter and was struggling to break into his field. He had an epiphany while jogging one day and realized he was taking lots of shortcuts and wondered if that held him back. He stopped taking shortcuts and became very successful. He said to this day that same restaurant where he was a waiter; he still holds the record for most steak sales in one night! He worked there almost 20 years ago! This article was wakeup call to me. I know I took shortcuts and on some tasks I did not enjoy I did just enough to get it done and did not give them much thought. I stopped and reevaluated how I did things and even posted the quote on my wall above my monitors so I could see it and make sure to always remember it. Even the trivial tasks might get you recognized for hard work and put you on a successful path if you strive to do them the best way you can.
So is multitasking bad for you? Do you take shortcuts? How can you just improve your overall career in small ways that help you strive to be greater? These are just some of the things to think about, as you grumble to yourself about having to go through that stack of bills that need to be paid. 110%...