Stay out of Triage

Staying out of Triage.

As a process for sorting people into groups based on their need for or likely benefit from immediate attention, triage is used in hospital emergency rooms, on battlefields, and at disaster sites and likely at desk near you.

Whenever time is limited resources must be allocated. Here is the basic challenge. There needs to be separation and protection between the triage role and the actual delivery of the critical service. Not separating the two results in higher fatigue and lower productivity. Humans can't efficiently flip back and forth from triage to service and back in any short span of time. Full stop.

The triage mindset is one of hyper vigilance. In triage mode you are monitoring and managing a continuous stream of disparate information, threats, challenges, inquiries, you are tuned to new stuff coming in from several different vectors. The main mental process involved is one of reacting to a certain situation with a predetermined response according to some standard operating procedure.

The Production mindset is one of tight focus. In stark opposite to when in triage - the production mindset is about blocking everything else out - which is why these two mindsets cannot co mingle. The production frame of mind is akin to sleeping. you settle down, close your eyes to everything else and adjust your consciousness to the task at hand. Stopping for a short bout of triage while in production mode is like taking a break from sleeping to juggle.

What it means for knowledge workers.

In production mode, close the internet, messaging and email down for a good 3-4 hours or more. Turn off the phone ringer. Put on some headphones if music helps you work.

In Triage mode, accept that for a certain span of the day you are going to be in triage. If there is a lull for a few minutes between calls, messages or other incoming stuff, clean something or organize something, don't try to start a production oriented task that will only be interrupted a few minutes later.

Break workflows into clear triage and production components and asking those parts to different people or the same person at different times.

Trade off or schedule with co-workers who is in triage mode and who is in production mode.