Task saturation 

Working too hard? Too many things happening in your life? Perhaps you are task saturated. Here's one take on coping.

James Murphy's book Flawless Execution has some very good news for people whose lives seem to be overwhelmingly complex. He writes that people who are "task saturated" usually cope by using one of three common mechanisms: quit, compartmentalize, or channelize.

Quitters just stop doing what they are doing and take a break. They stop thinking about the problem. They wander around aimlessly or daydream or take a nap. People with this mechanism are dangerous if they are driving or flying airplanes, but not so dangerous if they are working at an office job.

Compartmentalizers are people who organize, make lists, shuffle paper, and plan to do great things, but never get around to doing any more than the planning, listing, and organizing themselves. The actual work remains undone. Compartmentalizers look busy, but they're not really doing anything. It's hard to tell that they're really idle. This hurts any system a compartmentalizer is a part of.

Then there are the channelizers, who hunker down and concentrate on one very small part of any system or problem. They shut the world out and concentrate on the single task before them. This coping mechanism can be just as dangerous as the compartmentalizer, since vital data and actions get missed or ignored because they are outside the scope of what the channelizer is concentrating on.

Murphy says that there are three ways to avoid these dangerous coping mechanisms: checklists, cross-checks, and mutual support.

The checklist is from aviation, since Murphy is an ex-Air Force F-15 pilot. Checklists make sure you don't concentrate on just one thing, but see all the details required to accomplish a task.

Cross-checks prevent channelizing by reminding the cross-checker that there is always more than one thing to check. A pilot has to consistently check on his airspeed, his altitude, his heading, his rate of climb or descent, and the health of his engine(s). Missing any one of these in a constant scan can lead to dangerous or even unrecoverable situations. Murphy reminds us that the same thing is true of any business, and even an individual's performance on the job. Without constantly cross-checking current customers, past customers, customer feedback, and customer satisfaction, no business can hope to keep on top of its constantly changing environment.

Finally, mutual support is a really important way of avoiding getting stuck in one of the counterproductive coping mechanisms. Murphy points out that no fighter pilot ever ventures into the battlefield without a wingman. The wingman is always on the lookout for situations that might endanger the mission. The wingman never hesitates to bark out "orders", even to superior officers, when he sees danger brewing. Murphy recommends that everyone have wingmen they can consult with, and get honest and clear feedback from.

So, if you find yourself quitting, compartmentalizing, or channelizing, you can improve your performance by using checklists, cross-checking everything as often as possible, and making sure you have plenty of support from the people around you.