Multi-tasking

There was a time not so long ago when you could find me comfortably doing multiple tasks at the same time; replying to an email while talking on the phone, preparing dinner, helping with homework and answering the doorbell, all without missing beat. It was the same on weekends too. On any given Saturday, by noon, I would have accomplished what most people would take the entire weekend to complete. My morning shower would be accompanied by thoughts about the day ahead, the deliverables, the meetings, the errands, all swirled merrily in my head and settled down in obedient order so that minimum time was used to achieve the maximum possible. There was one training program I did not need to attend and that was time management.

I was proud of my efficiency. I did not know any other way. I liked being efficient. It saved me time which I could use for other things (though I did not figure out what those other things were until much later). In fact, my ability to skillfully manage disparate activities in a short period of time was one quality I counted upon when I decided to go solo. So I did my networking calls and emails, met people, attended conferences, wrote proposals, prepared presentations and billed clients. Somewhere along the way, I noticed that being efficient, usually led me down the path of taking on more than I could chew. This led to mistakes. Not big ones. Nothing that clients noticed. But I did. And I was not pleased.

I read somewhere that multitasking is just a fancy way of saying “divided attention”. Now I believe it. When your brain is occupied with one task but already thinking of another, it is making room for something else which detracts from the task at hand. If I were to undertake only one thing at a time, I thought I would not have enough hours in the day to get through all the things that needed to be done. But guess my surprise (shock is a more apt word) when I found out that by tackling one job at one time, I am not really doing things slower, I am actually doing them in the same amount of time (or less) but with fewer errors or repeats. Overall my efficiency actually went up – of course the data is from my own personal empirical observations alone so I cannot claim a scientific breakthrough here.

In case you are skeptical about my theory, try to get off the multitasking roller coaster for a day. Make a list of things you need to do. And do them one at a time, in a logical sequence. I guarantee that you will make progress on each item on your list. At the very least you will most definitely enjoy doing those things that you attempt. And isn’t that the whole purpose of saving time, to savor it on other things, the things you truly enjoy doing?