Multi Task like an Air Traffic Controller
Multitask like an Air Traffic Controller
When you think of multi tasking, air traffic controllers may come to mind.
The people responsible for separating multiple airplanes, answering phone lines, scanning radar screens and out the tower windows, must be good at multi tasking, right? They must be able to focus on more than one thing at a time.
What if I said a human cannot focus on two things which require our focus.
What if I said a human cannot focus on two things which require our focus.
What if I said nobody can multitask.
I know what you are thinking:
I multitask all the time! If I didn't I'd never get anything done!
As an air traffic controller myself, I believed I had to be awesome at multitasking. I thought once I mastered the skill, I'd be an air traffic legend.
The truth is, I am not multitasking. Instead, I am moving quickly from one task to the other.
I can do something else while focusing on a task, but it has to be such a good habit ,I do it without having to think about it.
A human can only focus on one thing at a time, but we can also form habits, which we do without focus or mental energy.
A human can only focus on one thing at a time, but we can also form habits, which we do without focus or mental energy.
It's like when you are driving. You are pressing gas pedal, but are you really thinking about it?
What about the first time you drove? In the beginning, you thought about many things. You were focused on keeping the car on the road, but you forgot the blinker. You sucked because your mind was quickly moving to each task, but each one required mental energy. You probably did not notice what was on the radio.
Now you can eat a hamburger, find a good station on the radio, and look at the scenery, while cruising 70 mph. Your not even thinking about staying on the road or using the blinker. ( Although, you may have created a bad habit of not using it.)
You have created many small habits that free your brain for other activities.
Once you realize the power of habits, you can be more productive in daily life.
While training to be an air traffic controller, I feared I lacked the skill to multitask well. I always had a hard time doing just two things at a time.
Just leaving my house with three children, sent me down the drain. Someone was half dressed, food was left on the counters, or my keys were missing. Sometimes all at once.
How did my wife make this look effortless? Is she a better multitasking than I am? Can her brain do more things at once?
Actually, no. She is much better at other things.
My wife is not only better at prioritizing tasks, she also has better habits in the household. This makes sense because she is home a lot more with the kids than I am.
Human brains function properly by doing one task at a time. If you can do two tasks at one time, your only thinking about one, and your stacking another habit with it.
The more habits you have in your life, the more you can focus on more important tasks requiring focus, without draining your mental energy.
When someone trains to become an air traffic controller, they learn very quick about prioritizing tasks. When you have many tasks to do at once, you must quickly prioritize and execute them, while more are piling up.
Creating useful habits takes initiative and focus.
In a tower, there are many things to do at once, and each item requires a high level of accuracy.
The first thing to do is prioritize, then move to each task as quickly as possible.
It is possible to do two or more things at once, but only if the others are habits stacked on the main tasks at hand.
For example, as a controller I try to develop as many habits as possible which I do without even thinking. Habits like:
scanning the runway every time I say clear for take off or land
clicking the radar tag blue, which is mandatory, to remember a landing clearance was given
clicking the manual traffic count every time I clear an aircraft in the VFR pattern for a touch and go
giving traffic advisories to aircraft, and saying precise phraseology every time to pilots, so I am not thinking of what to say.
With these smaller habits in place, I can focus on the big picture and use my brain for safely and efficiently separating and moving aircraft in and out of the airport.
These habits become like your drive to work. When you arrive to work, you barely even had to think about driving. A crazy driver, heavy rain, or other abnormal situations, require you to focus and think. After that, you are back on auto pilot.
The drive to work becomes a routine on its own. You do it everyday, at the same times. If you can do this driving, you can do it with countless other things.
For example: Let's say Delta airlines holding at the runway ready to go and have a 3 minute window to depart to Atlanta. The window is now, but also I have two Cessna aircraft in the VFR downwinds wanting touch and go' s, an aircraft 10 miles away calling to land, and a helicopter wanting to fly through the airspace with a patient on board. This is a normal type of scenario.
First, I must prioritize the tasks before I talk.
I talk to the helicopter ,with a critical patient on board, first. I use standard phraseology, so I am able to look for a path and plan where I can move the Cessnas while I am talking.
I then instruct the Cessnas where to go and give traffic information.
I clear Delta for take off, scan the runway, and input the departure information to the other facility, which are all habits, so I am able to keep my main focus on getting the Cessnas, which are student pilots, moving out of the helicopter's way.
I then clear the other aircraft to land and give traffic information, while I am talking I turn the tag blue, but at the same time, I am planning my sequence with the arrival and the Cessnas.
I am only able to do all this,because I worked to make the smaller tasks a habit I do automatically.
You can apply these same principles to you daily routine, and allow you focus to be on important tasks in your life.
It is common to feel overwhelmed with daily life and feel like nothing is getting accomplished, yet you work harder and harder. Eventually, you are burnt out.
Let's say you have a big goal of writing a book, working out more, and eating better. You have good intentions, but everyday it seems you are taken over by many routine tasks which pull your attention in different directions.
A month later, no book progress, you worked out a few times, and somehow, you have gotten fatter.
First, you need to prioritize tasks and make them a habit as quick as you can.
The 3 goals above are all big changes in your life, so picking 1 of those would work well, but you can start more big tasks.
You also need to start making all your routine and boring tasks, as routine as possible ,so many of them become a habit without racking your brain on what to do everyday.
The key point in all of this is to create routines so you can save you brain power for improving your life and working toward your goals.
Lets say you want to work out more and start on your book. These are your priority.
You also have 3 children and need to get them out the door for school in the morning, and all of the other tasks that are at a household. It's time to make many of them routine. This will not happen overnight, but in a short time, you'll see major results. Getting your kids on a routine with habits will further enhance your goal.
Once you've established your priorities, you need to MAKE them a priorities. A good way to ensure you get time and focus on your priority goals is to do them early, when your mind is recharged. This means you might have to wake up earlier, (another habit). Once you do this a while, it will be effortless.
Now that you are up in the morning, you can focus on sitting down and writing. It can be as little as a paragraph in the beginning, but can be 2000 words a month later. After that, you can do simple exercises, like morning sprints, jogging, push ups and pull ups, or weights in the garage. It does not matter how much at first, just as long as you do something. Once the habit is in place, you can easily expand them.
Get the habit into place as soon as possible. If not, you will eventually give up. If it's not a routine habit, you use mental power to force youself to get up early and write.
After that, you need a break. Time for zoning out.
If you do this correctly, you can be on auto pilot until the afternoon, with the ability to add more to you plate, while staying relaxed and more focused.
If you do nothing else the rest of the day, at least you have done 2 things that better your life. You work on starting a business, writing music, or just meditating in the morning After a month, it will be routine, and you can focus on other tasks the rest of the day.
The habits can continue. After the workout, you can come inside, make sure the kids are awake, make them breakfast, clean up after breakfast, shower, take vitamins, make the bed, and many other things without thinking.
You must have an established routine In the past, I often did tasks in different order everyday. I did not plan so I would bounce around forgetting things and getting stressed Even these simple things would exhaust me before I could get on with my day.
Once solid habits are in place, the afternoon can be used to focus on more goals for yourself. You won't be exhausted and need to zone out on Youtube or Netflix while eating ice cream. You can use some saved will power to continue more planning for the next day or more on a project.
Take some time to prioritize your life. It is not hard. It only takes time to develop solid habits. It will not happen overnight. Simple habits can be created in less than a month, but more complex tasks take longer. Be persistent, over time things will become a habit.
Focus and creating more habits now, so you can have more focus in the future.
For example, as a controller I try to develop as many habits as possible which I do without even thinking. Habits like:
scanning the runway every time I say clear for take off or land
clicking the radar tag blue, which is mandatory, to remember a landing clearance was given
clicking the manual traffic count every time I clear an aircraft in the VFR pattern for a touch and go
giving traffic advisories to aircraft, and saying precise phraseology every time to pilots, so I am not thinking of what to say.
With these smaller habits in place, I can focus on the big picture and use my brain for safely and efficiently separating and moving aircraft in and out of the airport.
These habits become like your drive to work. When you arrive to work, you barely even had to think about driving. A crazy driver, heavy rain, or other abnormal situations, require you to focus and think. After that, you are back on auto pilot.
The drive to work becomes a routine on its own. You do it everyday, at the same times. If you can do this driving, you can do it with countless other things.
For example: Let's say Delta airlines holding at the runway ready to go and have a 3 minute window to depart to Atlanta. The window is now, but also I have two Cessna aircraft in the VFR downwinds wanting touch and go' s, an aircraft 10 miles away calling to land, and a helicopter wanting to fly through the airspace with a patient on board. This is a normal type of scenario.
First, I must prioritize the tasks before I talk.
I talk to the helicopter ,with a critical patient on board, first. I use standard phraseology, so I am able to look for a path and plan where I can move the Cessnas while I am talking.
I then instruct the Cessnas where to go and give traffic information.
I clear Delta for take off, scan the runway, and input the departure information to the other facility, which are all habits, so I am able to keep my main focus on getting the Cessnas, which are student pilots, moving out of the helicopter's way.
I then clear the other aircraft to land and give traffic information, while I am talking I turn the tag blue, but at the same time, I am planning my sequence with the arrival and the Cessnas.
I am only able to do all this,because I worked to make the smaller tasks a habit I do automatically.
You can apply these same principles to you daily routine, and allow you focus to be on important tasks in your life.
It is common to feel overwhelmed with daily life and feel like nothing is getting accomplished, yet you work harder and harder. Eventually, you are burnt out.
Let's say you have a big goal of writing a book, working out more, and eating better. You have good intentions, but everyday it seems you are taken over by many routine tasks which pull your attention in different directions.
A month later, no book progress, you worked out a few times, and somehow, you have gotten fatter.
First, you need to prioritize tasks and make them a habit as quick as you can.
The 3 goals above are all big changes in your life, so picking 1 of those would work well, but you can start more big tasks.
You also need to start making all your routine and boring tasks, as routine as possible ,so many of them become a habit without racking your brain on what to do everyday.
The key point in all of this is to create routines so you can save you brain power for improving your life and working toward your goals.
Lets say you want to work out more and start on your book. These are your priority.
You also have 3 children and need to get them out the door for school in the morning, and all of the other tasks that are at a household. It's time to make many of them routine. This will not happen overnight, but in a short time, you'll see major results. Getting your kids on a routine with habits will further enhance your goal.
Once you've established your priorities, you need to MAKE them a priorities. A good way to ensure you get time and focus on your priority goals is to do them early, when your mind is recharged. This means you might have to wake up earlier, (another habit). Once you do this a while, it will be effortless.
Now that you are up in the morning, you can focus on sitting down and writing. It can be as little as a paragraph in the beginning, but can be 2000 words a month later. After that, you can do simple exercises, like morning sprints, jogging, push ups and pull ups, or weights in the garage. It does not matter how much at first, just as long as you do something. Once the habit is in place, you can easily expand them.
Get the habit into place as soon as possible. If not, you will eventually give up. If it's not a routine habit, you use mental power to force youself to get up early and write.
After that, you need a break. Time for zoning out.
If you do this correctly, you can be on auto pilot until the afternoon, with the ability to add more to you plate, while staying relaxed and more focused.
If you do nothing else the rest of the day, at least you have done 2 things that better your life. You work on starting a business, writing music, or just meditating in the morning After a month, it will be routine, and you can focus on other tasks the rest of the day.
The habits can continue. After the workout, you can come inside, make sure the kids are awake, make them breakfast, clean up after breakfast, shower, take vitamins, make the bed, and many other things without thinking.
You must have an established routine In the past, I often did tasks in different order everyday. I did not plan so I would bounce around forgetting things and getting stressed Even these simple things would exhaust me before I could get on with my day.
Once solid habits are in place, the afternoon can be used to focus on more goals for yourself. You won't be exhausted and need to zone out on Youtube or Netflix while eating ice cream. You can use some saved will power to continue more planning for the next day or more on a project.
Take some time to prioritize your life. It is not hard. It only takes time to develop solid habits. It will not happen overnight. Simple habits can be created in less than a month, but more complex tasks take longer. Be persistent, over time things will become a habit.
Focus and creating more habits now, so you can have more focus in the future.
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