Bundle it

Just like Frank on American Pickers, bundling is the best way to get a great deal.  Email is the greatest time waster in the office.  Not only the total amount of time, but that it comes in small bursts that interrupt whatever larger project you were working on.  A common suggestion is to turn off the email and only deal with it at specific times so that you are focused on email and it does not have the potential to interrupt.

Are there other tasks, say that happen only once, only once a year, once a month, once a week that are like email?  Filling out surveys, safety documentation, checklists, backing up the computer….  So often we do them right away so we don’t forget (right reason) or for the satisfaction of doing something (wrong reason). Are these important but small tasks disruptive?  Can they be bundled?  What would it feel like to put a block on your calendar that says “Small Tasks” and anytime a small task came up you could just put it off until that pre-designated time? Then you would not forget, and it would not be disruptive.

Try it out.