Broadcasting Brain

Today I want to ask you a question and I’m really, really curious to know how you do things.

I’m really curious to know if you are the type of person who does things in a linear sequence or do you follow a more random pattern of working.

Linear sequence would be an example of starting at the beginning or logical starting point and then following a predefined set of steps, in order, until you reach the logical ending point. If you were driving from City A to City B, as an example, there is probably a shortest path where you always pass by several other cities, towns, landmarks, and so on. Food recipes are another example of doing work in a specific sequence of steps.

Random-access, a little-used term but quietly prolific process, means that you can do things out of sequence, just like the way that your computer’s hard drive, your DVD player, and your digital music player can move to any piece of data (or section of the storage media). These machines can move directly to a specific piece of information without passing through all preceding pieces of data. In terms of work, this means that you do not work in a pre-determined sequence. Instead, you’ll flip from task to task depending on your interest levels or other criteria.

By habit or by nature, I seem to use non-linear methods whenever I can, particularly when I have a lot of control over how I can do something. The main reason I use these methods, I think, is that I need a starting point to sink myself into before I can properly get oriented on doing something.

It’s not always the most efficient way to get things done, but it’s effective for me (I tend to be more biased to effectiveness than efficiency).

But enough about me.

How about you?

Are you a linear worker or do you move through work differently, more random-access? Please share your thoughts with the rest of us and thanks!

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