We work in a space of “increased complexity, saturated with multi-tasking, interruption, and profound information overload. The effect of this cognitive overload at a social level is tension with colleagues, loss of job satisfaction, and strained personal relationships” (Kirsh, 2000 p.20).   David Kirsh, Dept. of Cognitive Science, University California, San Diego

The above statement by Professor David Kirsh says that we are all overloaded with too much information, we have too many distractions at work and we try to do too many things all at the same time. So what does this mean in practice?

Distractions and Interruptions – we get interrupted by other people and distracted by ourselves. This means our work never gets done. We miss deadlines, our work productivity drops and stress starts increasing as we have more and more work to do, yet we are doing less and less. We are like a hamster running around on a wheel – a great action but we are going nowhere!

This overload does not have to be extreme before we start acting like a deer stunned by the headlights of a car. When you are stunned or over whelmed by too much information you find it very difficult to make the right decision.

Multi-Tasking – this is a misunderstood area of cognitive function in humans. Psychologists tell us that the brain processes cognitive information sequentially, it is just the speed at which it switches from one task to another that makes us think we are multi-tasking. This is why talking on a mobile phone and driving a car is so dangerous. Studies done by Professor David Meyer of the University of Michigan, who is an expert in the area of multi-tasking, found that time is lost when you change from one task to another. The more complex the tasks, the greater the time lost. Also: working on tasks that are unfamiliar increases the time lost.

How Ezidoesit Helps

Ezidoesit helps you to manage your time and work and you don’t have to go on an expensive time management course to learn how to do this! Turning email requests for work into tasks and scheduling these into the Outlook Calendar means that Ezidoesit users get to the start line each day quicker and easier than other people. Less time is spent organizing your work day, which gives you more time to do the work. If you need to reschedule tasks in the calendar, or you need to attend more meetings, Ezidoesit can handle these changes quickly. The Outlook Calendar and Ezidoesit tools like the Schedule, Ribbon View and Performance Gauge empower you, the user, with information and intuitive tools for managing your work productively.

Less email in your inbox, a schedule for the day, means that tasks get completed on time; accurate priorities are easily set, no work is missed, which means less stress for the Ezidoesit user. Recent research has shown that multi-tasking decreases productivity.  Knowing what you should be doing minimizes the urge to multi-task.