This is by far one of the hardest parts of my day! I struggle to stay on task. In my mind if I can do 10 things at one time then I'm getting more out of my time. Right!....WRONG!
Multitasking doesn't make us as productive as we think! Our quality of work actually decreases and it can actually be wasting time instead of creating new time.
The simple reason multitasking doesn't work is because we can't actually focus on more then one thing at a time, our mind just thinks we can!
So imagine you are on the phone with someone and you are following up with a question from customer at the same time. Both of these tasks take communication, you can't talk to someone and write a focused well explained email at the same time, it's to conflicting. Your mind will get overloaded at this point. Now say you are writing an email and listening to someone at the same time. This task is a bit easier, but the person you are listening to will fade in and out. You simply can't focus on both tasks at once.
Another downside is the stress levels of dealing with multiple things at once. You feel overwhelmed drained, and under appreciated. At the end of the day you don't feel like you really accomplished anything.
How do you stop multitasking??? Here are some ideas "m trying out to help me improve my time management skills:
- Plan your day in blocks. Set time aside for phone calls, emails, cleaning, etc...
- Keep a journal of what interrupts you the most. After one week look over your data and adjust what you need to in order to limit or take away these interruptions.
- Learn to focus on ONE task at a time. If you find your mind wondering take a 15 second break, breath and tell yourself "I'm in this meeting I need to focus on what I'm learning here!"
This is only a very small piece of time management! I hope this helps you have a more successful day!
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