One of my favourite magazines is Scientific American Mind. Not your typical business magazine. I read it because I am fascinated by how, why and what people think and I like to learn about the brain science behind it. I also read it because it sparks ideas for articles on the happychild website. But often the articles have a relevance to business development; this month my attention was caught by the article called “Looming Deadlines: How the pressure of a due date distorts our perception of time.” Psychological scientists at Swansea University have found that the more complex a task, the closer the deadline ‘feels.’ The researchers conducted a variety of experiments all indicating that even when deadline dates are identical, a more complex task will always ‘feel’ like it is looming closer than a less complex task. In small business, and especially in the start-up phase, the tasks are numerous; many of them are complex – and you are trying to complete most of them yourself. With nobody to delegate tasks to, it’s no wonder that entrepreneurs feel swamped.
I have this feeling frequently. The Scientific American Mind article reports that there may be an upside to these feelings of being overwhelmed – if deadlines feel closer and more rigid for a complex task, we are more likely to pay attention to them; apparently this feeling makes us more conscientious and might help us respond better to the challenge. So I have been thinking about how to use this information. It is definitely worth looking into systems, planning strategies and the expert advice available on how to better manage time and tasks. But it’s also important to manage the mental stress associated with the busy life of the entrepreneur. If you read Gary Vaynerchuk’s book, Crush It you could be forgiven for feeling inadequate for not staying up all night and beating those deadlines. But in fact most of us also need sleep, exercise and relaxation to keep happy and well. If you have those last three habits under your belt, then I’m going to suggest one more thing: Make the complex tasks less complex.
If you feel overwhelmed by a series of complex tasks and their deadlines, the best approach is to think about them differently. One complex task can be divided into a number of less complex tasks with a number of different deadlines. Using this process is more satisfying as you can check off parts of the larger task and feel a sense of accomplishment as you do this. Instead of focusing on the more complex task due next month (getting your tax return documents and records ready for your accountant), you could focus on a simpler task (collating all your charitable deduction receipts) with a shorter deadline. You have less stressful ‘distorted deadline’ pressure and you are still working towards the same task in the end. Because the research indicates that task complexity distorts your sense of time and makes you ‘feel’ as if the deadline is looming, your new approach means you’ve used brain science to improve your business. I would be interested to know if you try this strategy.
