Microbursts

In his book, Effortless author Greg McKeown talks about breaking up work into microbursts. And this concept has really affected how I do things. It’s only been a week and a half since I learned the concept and I’m already seeing a difference.

I love this word. Not only do I love what it means, but I also love how it sounds. ‘Micro’ doesn’t just mean small. I associate it with high-tech sciency stuff. ‘Microscope’ ‘Microdose’ ‘Microbiology.’

And ‘bursts’ takes me back to elementary school when my mom would put a pack of Gushers in my lunchbox. Bite into them and a burst of sugary syrup detonated in your mouth like a delicious grenade.

What does it mean? Rather than look at your list of stuff to do for the day and start chopping away monotonously for hours, break up your day into microbursts of productivity.

We know that adult brains max out in holding attention to the same thing at about twenty minutes. What we normally do when we do stuff for more than twenty minutes is to continually renew our attention like refreshing a browser. But McKeown says why fight it? Use it.

So, now I do my best to think of work in ten-twenty minute increments. Often I feel like I could go on for longer, but I make myself do something different. Usually, something that doesn’t feel like it’s using the same kinds of energy. For example, if I’m working on something while sitting at my computer (lots of tasks involve this) I’ll go unload the dishwasher or go check the mail. Something that doesn’t require making decisions and gets me moving.

Then when I return to the computer I feel like the energy reserves have charged up enough to deliver another microburst of concentrated work done. I’m starting to feel this accumulate in meaningful ways. After ten days of this mindset, I’ve noticed my stress levels feel less erratic. Here’s hoping that continues.

How do you get so much done? I’d love to hear your techniques.

Thanks, y’all!