Stop Multi-Tasking: It's About Time

How many times this month have you or one of your colleagues talked about how you are swamped? You don't have enough time for this or that. There aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done.

Picture this chain of events:

• Jeannie gets the day started with a cup of coffee. As she reads through the 25 emails that have come in overnight she quickly responds to an IM and then gets a phone call.
• As she's on the phone her assistant pops in with some documents. The assistant is using universal sign language for “sign here” as she points to the line with a ready pen.
• Jeannie is still on the call when she realizes she's a got meeting to be at in 5 minutes. She hangs up, pulls the right folder for the meeting and heads down the hallway.
• During the meeting her blackberry beckons her no less than 5 times. She quickly responds to three of the notes. The other two she'll have to get to back at her desk.
• As the meeting ends a colleague sees Jeannie in the conference room and pops his head in, “can I ask you a quick question?” By the time Jeannie finishes with the “quick” question it's time to take a conference call back in her office.
• She gets back to her desk with just enough time to answer one of the other blackberry notes she received earlier before dialing up the conference call. Another colleague pops their head in as she's dialing in her call. He mouths the words, “I'll come back”.
• By 4pm Jeannie sits back and thinks for a moment finally a chance to get to what I had planned on working on today. Just then, that colleague who said, “I'll come back” came back. It was another 40 minutes by the time they were finished.
• Now it's 4:40pm and Jeannie has a 5:05pm train to catch. She sits and wonders for a moment, what can I get accomplished in such a short amount of time? Her answer: nothing. So she surfed the web and bought a couple of things on-line before calling it a day. Sound at all familiar?

This scene is too familiar for far too many of us. About the time you are ready to shut down for the day is about the same time you can finally start working on your own work or the projects you have planned. Even though you may be able to tout that you're super busy and really swamped it may be fair to say you are not always as super productive or really focused as you would like to be. The problem is multi-tasking. While it is an important skill set that you cannot live without in today's workplace, there is the tendency to multi-task overdose.

We might define multi-tasking as being able to do more things at the same time. It seems productive. It even sounds productive, but don't let it fool you. Multi-tasking is deceptive. It is not always as productive as it sounds. Sometimes it is even counter-productive to the cause.

There are reasons why people seem to get more accomplished in the early morning and late in the day:

• No one else is around.
• They are naturally multi-tasking less.

So the big question is, "how do you strike a balance and multi-task just enough to have a high level of productivity before going overboard and becoming counterproductive?"

Here are some questions you can ask yourself to help determine if it's time to multi-task or single track.

How much brain power does it take?

• If it takes a lot of concentration to work on the project, you may want to set aside uninterrupted time for it.
• If you are working on something that needs to get done, but doesn't take a lot of brain power than multi-tasking may be just fine.

How easy is it to get back into a project after being interrupted?

• If you can jump right back to whatever you were doing without missing a beat then multi-tasking may not be a problem.
• If it takes 15 - 30 minutes to settle back into the project after being interrupted it may require more uninterrupted time to increase productivity.

Are there any "burning issues" that may require me to drop what I'm doing?

• If there are no known "burning issues" it may be a day where you can put aside 30 minutes or more to focus on just one project.
• You may be expecting interruptions and need to multi-task based on critical business issues.

Each of these questions is getting at the practicality of multi-tasking based on the task at hand, the level complexity or difficulty, and everything else going on around you. There may be days when you have to stay available throughout the day and others where you will have the flexibility needed to shut the door and let calls go to voicemail for a period of time while you focus on one project.

Carving out time to single track (stay focused on one thing) is not much different than being away from your desk for a meeting. While you are away it is a little more difficult to get in touch with you. When you return you probably check your emails and voicemails to see what you've missed while you were away. Use the same principle in setting aside time to single track on a project.

The bottom line: If you really want to be use your time effectively and productively; stop multi-tasking all the time. It's about time.

Written by Jennifer Mounce, President, Coach Effect. Coach Effect is a coaching, consulting and development firm focused on engaging employees through leadership and organizational effectiveness. For more information, please contact us.