Multitasking: The Silent Killer

Sure, we all know those super-human folks who serve on twenty committees, manage a small army of productive professionals, generate amazing business results and live a rich and fulfilling personal life that includes extended vacations with their delightful family.

OK... We really don't know people like that, but if we did, we could be sure that they manage their time well. I have seen several articles on time management recently, and they all talk about the rise in multitasking and document a surprising fact: multitasking doesn't work! Why? Our brains are simply not wired for it. Anything that requires thought to perform requires undivided attention.

In fact, a 2001 Study published by American Psychological Association shows that for all types of tasks, people lose time when they switch from one task to another, and time loss increases significantly with the complexity or unfamiliarity of the tasks. To put it another way, if you have two tasks and you do them together, both are executed 20 to 50 percent more slowly and with more errors than if each was done individually. The time to "switch" and "come back to speed" on each task is significant. You are much better off in both time and quality if you do one thing, finish it, then do the next thing.

Even with this insight, we can always rationalize multitasking. Do you conduct business phone calls while driving the car between meetings? How about meaningful conversations with your passenger? I do both. But the studies demonstrate that if I am concentrating on the conversation, I am not concentrating on the driving, and vice-versa. And if I have to react quickly to something in the road, I first have to switch my brain from the conversation to the driving. This added reaction time may take only a fraction of a second, but in that fraction of a second my car has traveled 1/3 the length of a football field. That's why it doesn't matter how much legislation is passed to compel people to use hands-free cell phones in the car: it's not the busy hands that make the difference; it's the busy brains!

So, what can you do?

CHOOSE TO FOCUS

I always argue that life is a series of choices. Focusing on one thing at a time may be no more difficult than simply choosing to do so. For example, choose to turn off that feature on your PC that flashes incoming e-mails, news blurbs, and instant messages. (How can you focus with all those incoming SCUDS?) Choose to handle one task, finish it, then go on to the next.

REPLACE MULTITASKING WITH MULTI PURPOSING

Instead of trying to do two things at once, you can plan ahead to get some purposeful things done during times that are otherwise wasted.

For example, keep a "reading file" in your briefcase and read these items while waiting in the doctor's office. (Do you really need to know all the nonsense that's in a three-year-old copy of "People"?) Another example: plan "working lunch" meetings so you can attend to business while doing something else you need to do -- like eating!

ELIMINATE PROCRASTINATION

Years ago, one of my employees taught me the "Four D's" method of avoiding procrastination. For everything that came into his desk on a given day (faxes, e-mails, phone messages, documents, etc.) he handled it in one of four ways, without exception:

1. Do it! If it's important, then handle it. Answer it. Complete it. Do it well. Do it once. Think how satisfying that is!
2. Delete it! Much of what we get may be interesting, but it's not important or relevant or useful. Dump it in the trash. As my aunt once said, "Never put off until tomorrow something you can put off forever!"
3. Delegate it! Someone else can do this better. Send it to them.
4. Date it! You should do this task, but not today. Put a future date on it, put it in a tickler file for that date and forget about it until then. When the date comes, either do it, delegate it, or delete it, but don't date it again.

SET PRIORITIES

Every day, your FIRST task should be to set your priorities for the day. Look at all the meetings and other tasks that you could get done, and rank them in order of importance or value. What are the top ten things? Top seven? Top three? If I get just three important things done, it's a good day in my book!

If I don't set priorities and stick to them, then I am still busy all day... but I tend to focus on what's URGENT, not what's important. Sometimes URGENT is IMPORTANT, but not often.

REASSESS MEETINGS

Everybody gripes about meetings, especially regularly-scheduled ones. But whether you own the meeting or are an invited participant, you can affect the outcome and help make sure it's a good use of your time.

First, be sure there is an agenda. It does not have to be in writing, but if there isn't an understanding then clarify at the start what is the purpose of the meeting and how people are expected to contribute.

Second, once the agenda is clear, consider if the length of the meeting can be reduced. If an hour is allotted, the meeting will take an hour. But if you ask up front whether participants think the agenda can be covered in a half hour, there may be immediate agreement, and you may actually get done in a half hour! What's the harm in asking? Everyone else has other stuff to get done, too!

DISCONNECT

Technology is a real time saver in some ways and the most incredible time-waster in others. I must admit that I have spent hours and hours getting two computers networked together when all I really would ever need to do is exchange one floppy disk of files between them. That's time I will never recover! Disconnect!

Here's a common problem: You are online, Googling for some important business information. You FIND the information you need, but that web page has a link to something else of interest, so you click there. And that click leads to another and another and another and before you know it you wake up twenty minutes later at the official Three Stooges website and wonder how you got there! Don't laugh, it happened to me! Disconnect!

DELEGATE

All of us are part of a team. Every member of the team brings something to the table that contributes to the outcome. As tempting as it is to "do it all yourself", it is vital to say "no" and to delegate. Handle the one or two things that make the BEST use of your own talents, skills, knowledge and experience. Delegate the rest. It may not get done exactly the way you would do it, but trust that it will get done and the earth will continue to rotate.

DEFER

We are often interrupted by well-intentioned people who have their own needs or agendas. But remember that your time is yours to manage, not theirs. You can put boundaries around your time and -- with total professionalism -- enforce them.

For example, set aside a time of day to handle phone calls. If someone's call is an interruption, either let it roll to voice mail, or -- if you must answer the phone -- explain that you are "in a meeting" and make an appointment to call them back during your "call time".

One of my clients used a very effective method to handle people (like me) who interrupted his work by showing up at his cubicle. He stood up, greeted me warmly, and DID NOT SIT BACK DOWN. Of course, I did not sit either, and my purpose for the visit was usually addressed quickly and I was on my way. The striking thing is that I always felt welcome and he was totally focused on my question while I was there. But our meetings seldom lasted for more than a minute.

UPDATE September 2006: The Wall Street Journal ran a column by Jared Sandburn called "Why Multitasking Doesn't Work". See:

THIS LINK

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Reference:

1. Top Seven Time Wasters and How to Overcome Them by Lin Grensing-Pophal, Office Solutions Magazine, May-June 2006.
2. Task Interference: The Silent Performance Killer by Harold D. Stolovitch, Ph.D., Workforce Performance Solutions Magazine, July 2006.