Do one thing at a time

A survey that Sam Geist mentioned in his Quick Bytes newsletter showed that 89% of Americans think that text messaging while driving is dangerous and should be outlawed. Yet 57% admit to sending text messages while being behind the wheel. We know from reading the research that multitasking is not a time saver. Yet most of us still persist in doing it.

In our zeal to get more things done in less time we are sabotaging our efforts. I suggest you ignore the recommendations contained in many time management books to double up on tasks. You don’t have to listen to your voice mail while reviewing your e-mail or take reading material to meetings or collate papers while talking on the phone. Instead, identify the priorities and work on them one at a time. Time management is not about doing more things; it’s about doing more important things. Many of the things that we are now attempting to do simultaneously could probably be eliminated altogether. Give your full attention to the important task at hand, and don’t be distracted by the trivial many. Whether you are jumping from one task to the other and back again or doing two jobs simultaneously, you are still multitasking. In the latter instance your mind is jumping more frequently while in the former case your mind has been away from the first task so long it has trouble remembering where it left off. In either case, it’s inefficient.