To do two things at once is to do neither.--unknown
Have you ever had this experience…
You're working on a project that requires creativity, such as writing your ezine or designing a marketing campaign, and suddenly the phone rings, jolting you out of deep concentration. Even if you don't answer the phone, it takes a few beats before you can re-anchor into what you were doing before.
That time lapse is your "mental CEO" shifting from one task, with a specific goal and set of "rules", to another, with a completely different goal and set of rules. That shift takes time. The more complex the tasks, the longer the shift takes.
What else are you trying to do while reading this article?
Sure, we can multitask. We might even believe we can do it without losing efficiency. But we would be fooling ourselves.
It has been proven in scientific studies that toggling between tasks slows the brain down. In effect, multi-tasking makes us momentarily stupid -- unable to establish priorities, focus or integrate anything new.
Have you ever tried to read your email while listening to a teleclass? How about trying to have a serious conversation on your cell phone while driving?
Yes? Then you know that neither was done with your full presence or capacity. It's as if you weren't there for half of the time. You neither fully understood the emails nor fully integrated what the teleclass offered. Too little of your consciousness was on driving -- scary -- and you couldn't fully connect in the conversation.
We all know that multitasking has real costs. So why do we still do it?
It's ingrained in our habits. All the "time saving" devices of our technological age encourage us to be distracted and lose the ability to focus. And that's a significant loss because focus is what brings prosperity. Distraction keeps us from it.
Focus means your full attention. Here are five daily practices to attain pinpointed focus and stop multitasking.
1. Clear your desk of anything unrelated to your current goal. Things command attention. The less you have before you, the less likely you'll be distracted.
2. Schedule your time into blocks so that you can focus in on one individual task at a time. Include separate blocks for completing high payoff actions, emailing, working with clients, planning, etc. Then set sacred boundaries around those tasks. Complete one, then move on.
3. Do the most important thing first. High payoff actions are the things that will have the biggest positive impact on your success. What will bring you the results you want the most quickly? Put that first, always.
4. Take short breaks away from technology between time blocks or tasks. Take a walk around the block, play music, do something physical or creative. This will clear your mind and help your mental CEO recalibrate to the next task.
5. Plan for tomorrow. Schedule 1 - 3 high pay off activities for the next business day.
Become a master single tasker!
Take the next 30 days and replace your multitasking habits with these five daily practices and see how much more you accomplish and with less stress.
Learn more about the author, Rhonda Hess.
Great tips. Anyone who works from home knows there are plenty of distractions. Funny how important it is to add structure to our time when structure was one of the things were escaping from when we left the "real world."
Richard Baum Palo Verde Resources Business and Career Coaching for "Confident Career Choices (tm)"
So true Rhonda. I've been training my agents for almost a year (and practicing in my own business) and it's amazing how much MORE I get done than when I tried to do everything at once. Scheduling appointments with ourselves is a wonderful thing when we learn to keep the appointments!
Great tips! One thing I get on my wife that is a real estate agent about is letting her phone interrupt her constantly. When you are doing something, stay focused on just that until it is done!
Well written, Rhonda.
I'd like to elaborate on a point you briefly touched upon and that is about being fully present when we are in a conversation with someone.
There's a big difference in the quality of conversation when someone is giving you their full attention and isn't distracted by the cell phone, who came into the room or their mental grocery list.
It takes focus and practice to corral those wandering thoughts and to pay attention to the conversation in which you are engaged. Otherwise, 'engaged' just becomes a euphemism for 'multi-tasking'.
One of the best ways is to develop your Authentic Communication skills.
I was very relieved when these studies came out showing that multi-tasking isn't all that efficient.
I used to have a boss who repeatedly ask that I try to multi-task more. I think that we were not on the same wavelength about what that truly meant. I always tried to explain to her that I could flex to multi task more but the quality of work would suffer or I could continue with the same quality of work but probably wouldn't be multi-tasking quite in the way she wished.
Thanks for some great tips.
Hi Rhonda
Terrific points all, reminding me to focus on what's most important.
Being an ex-corporate employee, I have still not managed to fully remove "multi-tasking" from my ingrained process system. As employees of companies in offices, we learn to manage many things at once.
I have run into trouble with late work for clients, mistakes being made, etc. because I'm not as focused and present, always attempting to multi-task all the time!
I think if I follow these tips I will do much better!
Thanks again.
Thanks for the valuable reminders. Unitasking rocks!
Thank you, Rhonda, for these timely reminders, as I've been working to break this habit.
As a consummate "multitasker," even my clients have teased that I never do one thing at a time. But in teaching them to focus, I have to model it myself.
While it may seem like so much more is being done, I am discovering that focusing all of my attention and energy to a given task gets it done that much quicker and decreases potential errors in execution. No constant mental gymnastics in switching gears and more accomplished at the end of the day.
Amazing, huh?! ;) Thanks again.
Though practicing blocks of time for a couple of months now and finding it to be very helpful in project completion as well as helping me feel more centered, I still struggle with wondering if I'm using my time effectively vs. multi-tasking.
It is so refreshing to read your article about becoming a "master single tasker".
I know my focus has been compromised with pressures of programming and keeping up the pace while struggling with "Don't feel like I'm getting enough done".
I appreciate how your article reminds us to focus on completed projects, one at a time along with taking breaks away from the tech stuff and focusing on high pay off activities.
Thank you for the validation & especially the great tips!
Very true, and excellent tips. This is an interesting topic, and it is a difficult but very valuable habit to focus on one activity at a time. I have heard that this tends to be an issue for entrepreneurial minds.
Thanks,
Ben
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