DISQUS

Broadcasting Brain: Are you a sequential or random-access doer? | Broadcasting Brain

  • George Cozma · 1 year ago
    I'm beginning to believe that I have a bad case of A.D.D. I'm way too random in how I do my work.
  • Mark Dykeman · 1 year ago
    I can relate at times...
  • charlieanzman · 1 year ago
    Kinda half way in between but moving toward 'more structured' as (1) I get a lot more done. (2) It's positively healthier (IE: Breaks!) and (3) I get to see my wife once in a while
  • Mark Dykeman · 1 year ago
    Those are all good points, Charlie...
  • Derek Hatchard · 1 year ago
    When you drive through Nova Scotia, get off the Trans-Canada onto the old highway near Wentworth. If you know where to stop, you can walk into the woods and find a nice little waterfall. Far better than driving straight through from A to B.

    I am completely non-linear and random access. The drawback is the context switching cost. I flip between too many tasks too often. The past few months I've been trying to balance that by focusing on getting 4 to 6 primary tasks done per day. Then I can meander and flip as desired through other tasks.
  • Mark Dykeman · 1 year ago
    In manufacturing, the "switching" cost that you mention is called the changeover cost. In the past, manufacturing's aim was to go for long runs than minimized changeovers to different products to reduce those costs. Now the goal is to allow more changeovers, smaller batch sizes, and more variety at a lower cost. A universal concept, perhaps.
  • Alex Fayle | Someday Syndrome · 1 year ago
    I'm completely Random Access - but since I use lists and track my time, I'm still able to get things done.
  • JayCruz · 1 year ago
    Definitely a "random access" type of guy.
  • Mark Dykeman · 1 year ago
    A number of other readers feel the same way, it seems.
  • Phil Glockner · 1 year ago
    Definitely more on the random-access side. In fact, yeah, I have trouble with set sequences.
  • jonallen · 1 year ago
    I work in support, so by definition work is random, with requests and problems arriving at unpredicable times and frequency.

    But when the support work stops and I have time for project work, I can't get out of the random approach. I end up spending a huge amount of time spinning my wheels trying to do a little bit of each part of the different projects, instead of just focusing on doing and completing one part. I wish I could switch to linear mode, but it's not easy.
  • Mark Dykeman · 1 year ago
    I think it takes practice and discipline to switch, plus the awareness of what you are doing. Awareness is very important.
  • Beth Kanter · 1 year ago
    YOu're really asking about right brain versus left brain - I'm multi-hemispheric .. so I do a little both.
  • Mark Dykeman · 1 year ago
    Hi Beth. I hadn't really thought about this concept in terms of the qualities of the brain's hemispheres, but that's a good point to consider.

    I think that many of us, particularly professionals of any kind, learn to train ourselves to think in both modes because of the different types of work that we do.
  • ProgGrrl · 1 year ago
    I am definitely more of a random-access worker, for the most part. However, that falls away, and I find myself forcing a more linear process, whenever a huge deadline is looming, and/or there is a big project in the works with a lot of other people involved. In other words, when time management and limited time are at issue, linear works best.

    But I always fall back to random-access in my day-to-day
  • Mark Dykeman · 1 year ago
    Seems like a common thing, ProgGrrl. Thanks for stopping by, so say we all!