{"id":76131,"date":"2014-07-07T13:45:06","date_gmt":"2014-07-07T18:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=76131"},"modified":"2014-07-07T14:06:55","modified_gmt":"2014-07-07T19:06:55","slug":"maximize-your-effectiveness-reign-in-overextending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=76131","title":{"rendered":"Maximize your effectiveness: Rein in overextending"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Ryan Nitz, Head Editor,\u00a0INALJ Alaska<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Maximize your effectiveness: Rein in overextending<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"ryan.nitz\"<\/a>Aside from my career as a librarian, I\u2019ve spent a considerable amount of time as a student of music.\u00a0I\u2019ve been fortunate to have worked with some brilliant pedagogues. One of the most important\u00a0things I\u2019ve learned on the journey so far is that overextending myself is counterproductive. It\u2019s a little\u00a0counterintuitive, because when you\u2019re working on something that you feel very driven to accomplish,\u00a0there is a natural tendency to get very enthusiastic and work, work, work, practically non-stop and with\u00a0little or no thought as to whether this \u201cstrategy\u201d will be effective. While you\u2019re in the middle of one of\u00a0these marathon work sessions, it sure feels like you\u2019re getting things done, doesn\u2019t it? Well, chances are\u00a0there that, the further into the work session you get, the little mistakes that escape your attention\u2014or\u00a0maybe you do notice them, but you\u2019re on a roll and don\u2019t feel like stopping to make corrections\u2014start\u00a0to get bigger and bigger. Pretty soon, whether or not you know it\u2019s happening, you pass a threshold\u00a0beyond which your focus is no longer sharp and your work, even though it feels positive and beneficial,\u00a0is actually counterproductive.<\/p>\n

There is plenty of research available that suggests that the longest duration of time a human can\u00a0effectively focus on one task is somewhere in the neighborhood of 40-50 minutes. After that long,\u00a0it\u2019s better to stop and do something else for a little while, maybe 10-15 minutes or so. Applied in\u00a0the process of learning a skill or perfecting some kind of technical execution, the benefits become\u00a0noticeable nearly right away. Simply put, you are able to pay better attention, and stop repeating (and\u00a0thereby teaching yourself) mistakes. When the work session is over, you step away and let your mind\u00a0wander somewhere else for a little bit…maybe a digital stroll on over to inalj.com<\/a> to check out some\u00a0job listings… Once you\u2019re back, you\u2019ll find that you are more easily able to refocus and, rather than\u00a0spending time and effort correcting the mistakes you might have previously allowed yourself to learn\u00a0and incorporate into what you\u2019re doing, you can confidently begin to build on the progress you\u2019ve made.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve experienced good results putting this approach to work in many facets of the job search. It\u2019s a\u00a0great strategy to employ for combing through vacancy announcements. It works well for the careful\u00a0work of updating the old resume or CV. I\u2019ve found it especially effective when composing cover letters,\u00a0which is something that I always find myself spending quite a bit of time on. More than a few times I\u2019ve\u00a0caught myself about to submit a cover letter to XYZ institution, describing how great a fit I\u2019ll be at ABC\u00a0institution or something. Noticing that kind of thing while there\u2019s still time to fix it, instead of a couple of\u00a0days later when it\u2019s too late to do anything about it, is valuable to say the least.<\/p>\n

Another benefit of this time management strategy is that, for people with certain personality types\u00a0involving a proclivity to let your work overrun your personal time, it can help steer you down a path\u00a0towards preserving your sanity. That may sound a little hyperbolic, and I guess it is, but for those of\u00a0us out there who struggle to find the sweet spot of work-life balance, anything you can do to exercise\u00a0control over your work time\u2014rather than letting your work time take control of you\u2014is a step in the\u00a0right direction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Ryan Nitz, Head Editor,\u00a0INALJ Alaska Maximize your effectiveness: Rein in overextending Aside from my career as a librarian, I\u2019ve spent a considerable amount of time as a student of music.\u00a0I\u2019ve been fortunate to have worked with some brilliant pedagogues. One of the most important\u00a0things I\u2019ve learned on the journey so far is that overextending…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":57653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[69,6330,6329,3592,6332,6331,3628,3954,3868],"class_list":["post-76131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-article","tag-being-efficient","tag-being-productive","tag-blog","tag-effectiveness","tag-efficiency","tag-inalj-alaska","tag-ryan-nitz","tag-time-management"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/ryan.nitz_1.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-jNV","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=76131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/57653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=76131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=76131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=76131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}