Giving up on Multitasking

Multitasking effectively is a skill in itself. You have to maintain concentration on many different jobs over a prolonged period of time, removing some tasks they are completed and bringing new ones in as you take on more work to fill the psychological void you have just created by clearing your last task.

Through Jack Vinson's Knowledge Jolt, I came upon a post by Dale H Emery titled Multitasking and conflict. It is well worth a read if you have any interest in personal effectiveness.

I have begun to turn to this way of thinking, essentially that the bulk of employees are scared and afraid to stick their neck out. Multitasking is a mask. It shields the person away from making a true set of priorities and provides excuses for not getting things done on time.

"Oh, I'm sorry Bill, I've got so much on right now. I'm doing this for Roger, this for Jane and Derek gave me this report to digest which must come to the top of the list. It'll be done tomorrow."

Sure, Bill got his explanation as to why he is still waiting until tomorrow for his piece. But when you give work to someone that is multitasking and you don't get it on time, you tend to have to chase it. When multitasking, the real focus is hard to keep. The central focus remains on getting everyone's request done. The problem is that keeping people apprised is overlooked and seen as time not making progress. That's not a good way of keeping your colleagues/clients sweet and making them feel that you value and appreciate their work.

Some things also tend to get lost in the mire. The less critical tasks and the ones asked of you by the most timid people can fall to the bottom of the pile. No-one is going to ask you to do a job that doesn't need doing. If you think that people do hand you tasks that aren't necessary you must dispute it, but that is another topic. The point is, every piece of work you get handed needs doing and cannot be left to rot.

For these reasons that I have really begun seeing in the past few weeks, I am giving up on multitasking. Moving to a model that is more like:

• Job in
• Job allocated a time to be done with full attention
• Requester informed of where their job is in my scheme of things
• Job done

If circumstances change, everyone gets contacted with an update. People tend to be more forgiving than you would think provided they know the full story and feel that you appreciate them. Over the past week or so since I have been really been adopting this model, the effects have been very encouraging.

Technorati Tag = Personal Effectiveness, Productivity