START SIMPLE

When To Quit

By Charles Euchner

"Winners never quit, and quitters never win."

So sayeth Vince Lombardi, the god of knucklehead, win-at-all-cost sports ideologues.

The slogan appeals to us because of its simplicity, but also because of its deep vein of moralism. It fits the credo of the American Dream, the idea that a willingness to sweat and persevere separates winners from losers. It contains optimism's sunshine ("You, too, can win if you just work harder") and the realist's wariness ("Hey, kiddo, if you haven't made it, you haven't worked hard enough").

But as Seth Godin writes in his provocative little self-help book The Dip, winners quit all the time. Winners know how to judge whether they're going to thrive with an activity -- or whether they would be better off devoting their limited time to some other activity. If you have a chance to thrive, by all means, stick to it. But if you don't have a chance to be the best, you ought to quit.

Be the best? How many can be the best?

As Godin notes, a lot of people can be the best in the fragmented, niche-oriented world we live in today. If we competed in the big categories of the mass market, only a few people could be the best. If we think in terms of the mass market, only one person can be the best actor, or singer, or athlete, or investor, or teacher, or writer. Of course, deciding the "best" in some huge universe is a totally subjective process. Would you say Denzel Washington? Or Meryl Streep? Michael Caine? Cate Blanchette? Who knows? We could make a list of 20 or more actors and pick randomly from that list.

But if we think of "micro" markets, it's easier to identify the best. You could talk about best for movies, TV, and stage; men, women, and children; dramatic, comic, tragic, experimental, improv; New York and London; Broadway and off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway; pop and classical approaches; character actors and method actors; action and introspective roles. On and on, we could divide the mega category -- acting -- into countless distinct sub-categories.

It would be easier to make judgments about these categories. and it would be easier to strive to be the best at a sub-category than the whole universe.

The rewards of being the best are exponentially greater than the rewards of being just "good" or "pretty good." In Hollywood, they call it the star system. But it works in all fields -- publishing, politics, photography, psychotherapy, punditry, academe, the law, medicine, research -- and all of the countless subfields of these professions -- the superstars make manyfold the money and fame of the stars. The stars, in turn, make manyfold the money and fame of the competent many.

The reason is simple. When people are looking for recommendations, they ask for the best. Someone who gets the reputation as the best gets more traffic than she can handle. And because of supply and demand, the best can set the price about as high as she wants. High prices only enhance the mystique.

So what does this say about the necessity of quitting?

As Seth Godin notes, most of us try all kinds of professions and activities over the course of our lives. A lawyer, for example, might try a big and a small firm, a range of different specializations, litigation or deal-making, big-city and small-town practices, corporate or nonprofit work . . . .on and on, the choices are endless.

The trick is to quit the ones that don;t work, the ones where you cannot be the best.

All kinds of smart people are slaving away, competently, without getting the reward they may deserve. By following the Protestant ethic of hard work, sacrifice, and delayed gratification, they dig themselves deeper into a career groove. They might get a decent paycheck, occasional pats on the back, and the satisfaction of an honest day's work.

But maybe that's exactly the path that subjects them to the status of second-class citizen. Maybe, they should realize that quitting a decent job is the best way to find the way to superstardom.

That's Godin's lesson. Whatever you do, figure out the niche where you can be Number One. Don;t sell yourself as a "photographer." Don't even sell yourself as a technically superior photographer. Sell yourself as the Number One photographer of (a) a subject, (b) style, (c) sector, (d) city, and (e) price. In that niche, you'll develop a mystique. People will beat a path to your door. And you can set your own terms.

But first, you have to have the courage to quit everything else.

Overcoming the Curse of Multitasking

If you dare, keep a diary of a day’s activities.

Write down everything you do, in 15-minute increments. Track how often you answer the phone or check email. How often a colleague pops into your office for a chat. How often you surf the web. How often you dart from file to file. How often you burrow under a pile for a note or printout. How often you get up for a cup of coffee.

And then, stand back and consider how many projects you’re working on at the same time. You have three reports, five meetings, lots of people above and below you to check with, forms to fill out, budgets to review.

This is, after all, the Age of Multitasking.

At first, it seems right. We have gotten accustomed to doing many things at once. And when we’re in the flow, we feel like we’re masters of many things. Who cares if we spend only 11 minutes on a task before getting interrupted, as a study by Cal-Irvine’s Gloria Mark found. Who cares if even those 11-minute periods of action are really much smaller periods of three-minute activities, as Mark also found.

And, in fact, our brains evolved to process ungodly amounts of information at the same time. The brain is comprised of a hundred billion nerve cells, called neurons, which hold electrical charges. These neurons use chemicals called neurotransmitters to communicate with each other. The brain’s neurons communicate with each other, simultaneously, in just fractions of a second.

The brain is divided into several distinct regions. The somatic brain manages the body’s digestion, hormone production and output. The reptilian brain coordinates breathing, heartbeat, swallowing, visual tracking, and the startle response (which connects to the emotional processes). The mammalian or limbic brain coordinates emotions—instantly sounding an alarm when the person (thinks) he faces some kind of threat. The neocortex oversees the whole system with its ability to reason, abstract ideas, communicate, set goals and strategies.

Think of these regions of the brain as members of an office. The somatic and reptilian brains — call them Sammy and Renee — manage the building. They open the doors every morning, keep the place heated or cooled, coordinate comings and goings, and so on. The limbic brain — call it Larry — stands on lookout for dangers. The neocortex — call her Nellie — provides the executive functions like strategic planning, research, and project management.

The problems occur when Sammy and Renee are overactive, or when Larry is so scared of outside threats (real and imagined), that Nellie cannot work with her people to keep the place operating efficiently. The whole gang works well when each does his or her job, processing information and fulfilling basic functions on schedule. But when one becomes too agitated — or blase and passive — the whole operation overloads.

That can happen with multitasking. Every time you ake on more than one task, the whole operation slows down. How much? Researchers at Vanderbilt University found that actions can slow down by a second when you’re working on two things at once. Which is fine — unless you;re driving, operating dangerous tools, or looking after a toddler who might be heading for the stairs or reaching for a hairdryer in the tub. A second can pose a real danger when you need to react quickly.

At the office, we consider it normal to react instantly to interruptions. The phone rings, and we answer. An email pops on a screen, and we reach for the mouse. A colleague pops her head in the door, and we swivel around to answer.

Which is fine,. Except that it can take a lot of time to regain our train of thought. If we’re sorting files — a simple task, usually — it’s not hard to find our place again. But if we’re working through a tough problem, it can take up to 15 minutes to get back into the groove of working through the problem.

HOW TO AVOID DESTRUCTIVE MULTITASKING

Here are 10 ways to overcome the worst kinds of distractions in our Manic Age:

(1) Check email once an hour — at the most. Email is like a nickel-bag. It’s a cheap thrill, which gets you in the habit of coming back for more and more — even when you know it’s bad for you. Only look at email a few times a day, if possible, and sort your email so you can deal with it efficiently. If you're overwhelmed with email — some executives get hundreds of emails a day — get someone to help sort it. Or get family and friends to send notes only to a private email address.

(2) Sort email and other correspondence. Decide what notes need what kind of attention, and when. Delete spam without opening. Send notes from family and friends, as well as Google alerts, to a separate folder. Answer the easy notes right away, all at once, at a time when you can afford to take a break from serious work. And deal with the toughies — the serious correspondence that requires thought, research, and coordination — when you can shut out the rest of the world and do some hard thinking and critical writing.

(3) Adopt the OHIO Rule. OHIO stands for “Only Handle It Once.” The worst distractions are the ones that you have over and over. You get a bill, open it, and out it on a pile of letters, bills, solicitations, magazines, and coupon books. Later, you see the pile and look through it again. “Hmmm,” you say to yourself, “I better pay that bill. Later.” Later comes, and you see the pile, and go through everything again. Every time to work through the pile, anxiety builds. Unpaid bills, unanswered invitations, silently corrode your being. Stop! When you get a bill, pay it. When you get an invitation, answer. When you get a magazine, set it aside for reading time. Throw away whatever you can, right away. File what you need to file, right away. And don’t ever process the same piece of mail more than once.

(4) Take a break every 50 minutes, and know what to do when you return. Your brain and body start to slow down when they don’t get periodic breaks. So stand up every hour, look out the window, walk around, find a moment to close your eyes, use the restroom. Do whatever you need to freshen up, mentally and physically. Before you leave, though, make sure you know what you;re going to do when you return. Don't put yourself in a position of uncertainty and anxiety by not knowing what to do.

(5) Avoid all multitasking during high-speed tasks like driving. If you lose a second of reaction time when multitasking, that’s OK when you’re cooking burgers or sorting files. But it’s not OK if you’re driving 60 m.p.h. on the Interstate. Don’t multitask on the road. Don’t reach for the radio buttons or dial the cell. Keep your hands on the wheels and your eyes on the road.

(6) Take on only four to six major tasks at a time. If you can count the number of major projects you’re doing on one hand, you can keep the details straight. Of course, lots of people are responsible for hundreds of activities. If so, try to sort them into four to six categories.

(7) Put stuff away, right away, every time. The dumbest loss of time happens when you’re looking for something. Not only do you waste time looking under piles, behind desks, between seat cushions, and so on. But you also feel awful. You feel dumb and anxious. You wonder why you can’t keep things straight. You fret about what you’re going to tell someone: “That’s funny, I thought I had it on my desk, but…” The simple answer is to put stuff away right away. When you’re finished with a file, put it back in the cabinet. When you’re finished with a book or report, put it back on the shelf.

(8) Turn off the phone and close the door. The best way to avoid needless interruptions is to create a zone where you can concentrate, fully, on your work. Just as college professors set office hours for times when students may barge in with questions, you need to set office hours when colleagues and family may not barge in.

(9) Set aside prime productivity time every day. When do you wor most productively. For most people, it’s in the morning, after the first cup of Starbucks, when we’re rested and unburdened by a day of wins and losses. It’s usually before others start their projects and want to check in. Morning’s not the best time for everyone to do creative work, of course. But pay attention to when you work best — and block off that time for your most challenging projects. Don’t waste your prime productivity time on simple tasks that you can do without much thought. Save the best time for the best work. And make sure to tell everyone to stay away when you have to do that hard work. Or, if you need to collaborate, make sure your colleagues are around when you need them.

(10) Organize yourself as simply as possible. Some people love Palm Pilots. I have one and used to use it religiously. But my work now — writing, teaching, chauffering kids thither and yon — requires a different kind of organization than my old job running a university think tank. I still use the Palm for contact information, but rely on simple one page memos, with big block lettering done with Sharpies, of upcoming deadlines. A recent survey of high-achievers found that most use the simplest tool imaginable — a Word file, where they type all the important stuff going on, which they can search for specifics when need be. I often email myself with reminders and to-do notes.

Do you have any ideas on how to avoid the evils of too much multitasking? Comment on this post.

Secrets of the Clean Team

The sun did not shine.
It was too wet to play.
So we sat in the house
All that cold, cold, wet day.

You know the Dr. Seuss story about the day the Cat in the Hat came by for a visit and wreaked havoc on the tight little household of Sally and Dick. The kids mope around the house -- unattended, which would land their mom in Family Services court these days -- when this furry prankster comes along. In no time, the place is a mess. And then, just as quickly as he came, the nameless feline leaves the premises. The nervous goldfish, who should be happy to have survived an afternoon with a cat, frets.

And this mess is so big
And so deep and so tall,
we can not pick it up.
There is no way at all!

Let's set aside, for now, the goldfish's needless negative predictions -- a pessimism that would ruin any constructive effort to make things right. As it turns out, the Cat in the Hat saves the day with a huge cleaning machine. "I always pick up all my playthings," the Cat in the Hat announces as he sets out to fix his mess.

But what if the Cat in the Hat had not come back? And what if he did not have that miraculous cleaning machine? Could the kids have saved the day themselves, cleaning the house before their mom returns from God-knows-where?

Yes. A review of the "literature" on cleaning reveals these Ten Commandments of getting an out-of-control house under control -- and keeping it that way.

(1) Put It All in a Heap. When your room is a mess, you don't know what you have anymore. Some Oscar Madisons claim they can find anything in a flash. Maybe there are some Rain Men out there who can spot a checkbook underneath a pile of clothes, bills, books, CD's, gloves, candy, and more. But most of are not slob savants, so we need to sort our junk, piece by piece. The only way to do that is to pull it out of all the usually cram spaces -- shelves, boxes, drawers, under the sofa -- for a wholesale sorting. Only when our storage spaces are completely clear can we decide what really goes where.

(2) Follow the One-Second Rule and the One-Year Corollary. Once the stuff is in a pile, we need to sort the stuff fast. The major problem slobs have is that they're easily distracted and sentimental. Sitting amidst a pile of treasures, they cannot resist taking the time to inspect each item: "Oh, look at this picture of Lindsay when she was a toddler! Isn't she cuuuuuute?" Or: "Oh. My. God. Here's that library book. What am I going to do. My God! The fines must be huge now. Should I call the library?" But you have to avoid lingering over objects. Save the trips down Memory Lane and Regrets Road for another time.

The One-Second Rule states, simply, that you should spend only a second on each item. Look at it, and put it in the appropriate pile. The great thing about having a neat room is that you have more time linger on things that matter because you're not going to waste all kinds of time frantically looking for keys, gloves, library books, and so on.

The One-Year Corollary states that you should get rid of anything that you have not used for at least a year. If you have a sweater that you have not worn in the last year, you're not going to wear it in the next year. So either put it into deep storage, give it to Goodwill or a friend, or throw it away. Exception: You can keep things that you would use -- no hesitation -- right now. But be honest. Don't clutter your active space with junk that is just going to get in the way of using really useful things.

(3) Get Containers for Everything. All messes consist of jumbles. You put mix your things together and so you cannot find what you're looking for. You have a miscellaneous drawer where you keep pens and pads and old letters and paper clips and credit cards and rubber bands and coupons and affadavits and notes and lists and tacks and screwdrivers and bracelets and batteries . . . and a hundred other things. And when you need a paper clip, you can't find it . . . so you go out and buy more paper clips, or steal a paper clip off another bundle of paper (creating a new chaos opportunity).

To avoid this chaos, you need a container for everything. Books need shelves. Shoes need a box or hanging shoe holder. Coats and scarves need hangers and hooks. Computer or camera equipment needs cubbyholes. Sports equipment needs bins. Dishes need shelves and Rubbermaid racks. CD's and DVD's need shelves or floppy books. Magazines and newspapers need racks. Photos need boxes or albums, which need shelves. School books and notebooks need cubbies. Bills and other mail need filing cabinets or nooks in a secretary. Toys need boxes that actually hold the pieces, and they need shelves. On and on.

Do not mix different things in containers. Every item should go in a container that holds only one kind of thing.

(4) Set Up a Front Stage and Back Stage. Businesses these days talk about back office space, the storage areas where "dead" records and other rarely used materials can be stowed. Libraries, museums, archives, government agencies, stores, law firms, sports complexes -- everyone, these days -- use "off-site" facilities to keep the stuff they don't need on an everyday basis.

You have to do the same thing with your home or office. Keep handy only the things you use on a regular basis. Put all the out-of-season clothes in a cedar chest in the attic. Put all the dead files -- old tax records, bills, calendars, etc. -- in well-marked boxes. Put the children's many school creations -- show-and-tell, stories, costumes, pictures -- in "memory boxes." (When your kid gets engaged, you can haul out the memory boxes to show off your child's artifacts to the new fiancee.) Most of all, when you have something you have no intention of ever using again, get rid of it. Obviously, that's hard for some people to do. Some people have a sentimental attachment even to trash.

Here's the best way to think about stuff of marginal value taht you have a hard time parting with: (1) Acknowledge, honestly, that you don't use it anymore. Maybe you used to use it all the time, but you don't anymore. (2) Think of getting rid of it as a way to help others. Books, CD's, videotapes, records, clothes -- when you give them away, you are blessing someone else with a chance to enjoy them.

Now that you have cleared out the extraneous junk, you can set up the stuff you actually use. have the books that you actually refer to once in a while, the CD's you listen to, the dessert dishes you like to use when company comes over. Everything that truly makes your life better will be right at hand.

Bottom line: If you have a small house or room, don't try to stuff too much stuff in it. You have what you have, and no more.

(5) Put Trash Bins Everywhere. Messes develop when people don't know what to do with things -- especially rubbish. When you come in with the mail, you drop the mail wherever you are if you don't have a better option. Go right to a trash can and drop the junk mail -- catalogues, fliers, campaign brochures, credit-card come-ons, pennysavers -- right into the trash. In fact, the best thing you can do is to put a nice-looking trash bin in every room. Pay attention to where people are when they;re unwrapping a candy bar, sorting mail, opening packages, etc., and put a trash can there.

(6) Follow the Daylight Savings Rules. You know the rule about smoke-alarm batteries -- every half year, on the day we move clocks backward or forward, change the batteries. That way, you know they'll work if there's a fire.

Adopt similar rules for updating and sorting things in the house. Set a date for putting seasonal clothes in storage . . . for putting away memory boxes . . . for sorting shoes (especially with growing kids in the household) . . . for putting away seasonal sporting equipment . . . for gathering books, kitchen equipment, toys, and other things for yard sales . . .

(7) Use "In" and "Out" Containers. A lot of a household or office's activities take place in cycles. You wear clothes, get 'em dirty, wash 'em, and then put them away for the next use. In the office, you pull a file, use it, add to it, and put it away for the next time. Paid bills get mixed with unpaid bills. The problem happens when the stuff coming and the stuff going gets mixed up. I know a family that regularly mixes dirty an clean clothes because no one's ever sure what's what.

You need an "in" and an "out" container for these things. You need one laundry bin for freshly washed clothes and a hamper for dirty clothes. You need one file for paid bills and another for pending bills.

(8) Carry As You Go. Over the course of the day, you go up and down stairs, in and out of rooms, dozens of times. But too often, you leave behind the things that belong in another room. Someone puts clothes and toys on the stairs, and then eveyone in the family walks past them when they go upstairs or downstairs.

Just take something every time you go from one room or floor to another. It takes no extra time whatsoever. And if you immediately put it where it belongs you have the pleasure of a clean-looking house, you avoid the danger of tripping over something on the stairs, and you can always find the things you're looking for.

(9) Design Space for Center, Circulation, Traffic, Outside. This is a topic for another post, but for now, remember this: Every room needs a strong center (a place that attracts people and gives definition to the whole areas), a good circulation system (paths that help people get from here to there, without bumping into each other or knocking stuff over), strong edges or peripheral spaces (walls, windows, entryways), and outside (a connection with nearby spaces).

(10) Set A Day for Every Room and Task. It's hard to give every room in a house or office a complete makeover. But every room demands regular sweeping, dusting, mopping, and clearing miscellaneous objects that fall between the cracks. Set aside one day a week for each room. Use the weekend for the house or office's "public" spaces (living room and dining room, foyer, reception area). Set aside another day for the kitchen. Another for the bathrooms.