There are some universal truths in life. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west; you either love or hate cilantro (there’s no middle ground); and we all believe we’re being overloaded by email, texts and chats (unless you are a Luddite or live in a cave).
So, what’s a busy professional supposed to do with all that incoming information? We think that we can just juggle it all, y’know, multitask. Science tells us that’s just not happening. Instead of doing a number of things at the same time, we actually switch our attention from task to task. This causes increases in stress hormones and creates a dopamine-addiction feedback loop. Not healthy and still leaves things unorganized.
Truth is, each person has to find a system that works in concert with both their needs and their natural inclinations. According to McGill University Professor of psychology and behavioral neuroscience David Levitin, “People have different styles: Some are filers and some are pilers”. This means that some folks like intricate organizational tools, and others don’t.
I’ve spent a fair bit of my career developing helpful tools for business professionals and am still doing so with Gravatate. The landscape is rich with options for any business professional looking for some help. How can there be so many options? Why don’t all we have one, great, all-encompassing product that solves everyone’s problems? Simple – there are a lot of business people who have different needs and different styles. Big companies like Microsoft, Cisco, Atlassian and Citrix, offer complex, large multi-option products. Other firms offer very specific tools for particular efforts (Basecamp, Asana, Salesforce). And as a business leader you’ll have to decide what works for you.
Deep breaths – not a crisis. You can help yourself by asking a few simple questions to help you choose what works best for you
- Are you ok switching between a number of apps and tools or do you really want to use just one or two organizing options?
- Do you communicate mostly with people in your own company or with others across many other organizations?
- How much are you willing to pay for a system that works for you?
So, tame your communications chaos by knowing how you need things organized then right-size your toolset. This helps you look for the best apps for you.
Still not sure? Reach out to us at info@gravatate.com. We can help.
