A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I had a very intense job. Actually, I’ve had more than one very intense job.
At one job, I was a waiter, and Monday mornings were generally a bit slow. In fact, so slow that often, the manager and I were the only ones working. The manager had to leave to make bank deposits on Mondays, leaving me alone to run the restaurant. Most of the time this wasn’t a problem. A customer would come in and I’d pour the coffee, throw the eggs down on the grill, butter the toast, take cash at the cashier, and on to the next customer. Even with just 4 or 5 customers, it was a bit hectic, but I could handle it. I made $2 per hour, plus tips. Occasionally, the manager would leave, and I’d get a flood of people—I could hardly breathe until the manager returned. Since the restaurant was in a vacation area, sometimes the same family came in for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and I served them all three times because I’d sometimes work 12-hour shifts from 9 AM-9 PM. I didn’t have time to sit down once and they’ve all eaten their third meal.
The thing is, I liked when it was super-busy. Not just because we were paid mostly in tips, but also when things were that intense, I would get into a flow, and time just flew by. I would get to work, and in the blink of an eye, my 12-hour shift was over. Working intensely without interruptions feels good.
Later, I worked as a supervisor in a program for children with autism which was intense in different ways. I was again super-busy—I had a huge caseload. And while I didn’t yet have a cell phone, I did have email. I often received a lot of emails that were important, urgent, and needed to be answered quickly. This was before the BACB (Behavior Analysis Certification Board), and we didn’t have things like limits on caseloads. The amount of work (and email) I had was staggering.
Yet, the work at the program for children with autism didn’t feel like the work at the restaurant. It didn’t fly by quickly. It felt intense and stressful most of the time. Sometimes I’d get that feeling of flow like at the restaurant, but not usually. As I’m learning from Cal Newport’s new book, that might have been partially caused by the email. Email can cause stress, anxiety, and generally be an ineffective way to get work done. Answering emails is much different than serving customers at the restaurant or working intensely with a client. You don’t get that positive feeling of flow from email.
There are many lessons to learn here. Be suspicious of how email / text messages are influencing your work. I have argued before that sometimes we make a huge mistake when we think that an email or a text is a substitute for a conversation. I’ve also argued that having your phone on while working with clients will substantially decrease the quality of your work.
I’ve been working on workflow systems for many years, and it is still a work in progress. You are unlikely to learn how to organize yourself, handle enormous loads of email, text messages, and prioritize your workload in a graduate school class or a CEU course. But these are skills all professionals need to learn. There are lots of potential ways to improve, but just realizing that these things can have a big impact on your effectiveness is a good first start.