A few years ago, the director of admissions for a community college told me that every summer she and her team receive hundreds of emails inquiring about enrollment. Most ask specific questions to which she and her team have to respond personally. Many of their emailed responses end a question or two, since they are unsure of the applicant’s specific situation. And then they wait, sometimes for a couple of weeks. Inevitably, a number of the responses come back in fresh emails without the previous emails attached.
As a result, they used to spend a great deal of time searching for the original emails so they could figure out who they’re talking to and what was asked. What would you think if you got an email from jane.smith@gmail.com that reads, “Thanks. Actually, I was thinking about the nursing assistant program. Will my credits transfer?” and nothing else. Imagine dealing with several of these every day. You might be dealing with a similar situation where you work.
How many incompletes can you balance without your head exploding, because that’s what these are? In the 1930s Hungarian psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik discovered that when you begin a task, but leave it unfinished, the thought of it continues to tax your attention every time something makes you think of it. The more these incompletes accumulate, the more attention they steal from your energy and focus. Over time, this phenomenon has become known as the Zeigarnik effect.
So, how do you manage, or even eliminate, many of these incompletes from your daily routine? Here are three simple strategies.
One, park it. In other words, write it down or record it someplace. Dr. Zeigarnik also discovered that when you park an incomplete, the brain releases it from your subconscious. If you keep thinking, “Oh! I’ve got to do that,” with certain tasks, those are perfect candidates to be parked.
Two, schedule it. If it something that can be scheduled, like a doctor’s appointment, oil changes, or monthly donations, schedule it. Once again, if you schedule an incomplete, the brain releases it from your subconscious and your attention won’t be interrupted every time you see a doctor’s office, quick lube or a donation center. With today’s scheduling software, you can do this more effectively than ever.
Three, devise a process for eliminating incompletes. That’s what the director of admissions and her team did, at least for many of these emails. Now they place a message, in bold print, at the end of every response to an enrollment inquiry that reads, PLEASE REPLY TO THIS EMAIL! That way we can track the conversation we are having with you. Not doing so can significantly delay our response to your questions. Thanks.” It doesn’t work all the time, but it has eliminated the vast majority of these situations, saving hours of staff time every week.
If you allow them to, incompletes will steal your time, energy and focus every single day. Give these three strategies a try and let me know how they work in the comments for this video. Thanks.