On Multitasking

MULTITASKING?…So the other month I was wondering:

—“How many business owners, bosses, managers, etc keep a “timecard” or “timesheet” to track HOW THEY REALLY SPEND THEIR TIME even though they don’t have too?”—

When the thought came to mind I was thinking of a particular client I am doing some coaching/consulting and programming work for that does public works projects along the Mississippi in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas.
Yesterday morning we were talking and with respect to him keeping track of his time or as the case was his NOT being able to track his time he tells me he is working on so many different things he just can’t keep track. He would work 30 minutes on this and then 40 minutes on this and then 15 minutes this then 20 minutes on that and it was just too difficult for him to track all those activities with him switching around so much all day. His daily schedule was to use his words “chaos”.

Were talking while were screen sharing so he can’t see my face as I quickly shake my head listening to his plight.
“Well, there is your big #1 problem right there as to why all these things you’re working on never get done. It’s the multitasking. Saying were great at multitasking is one of the big lies we fool ourselves with. No one is.”
THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS BEING GOOD AT MULTITASKING BECAUSE MULTITASKING ISN’T GOOD. That’s like saying you’re really good at procrastinating and dragging things out. I should add…MANAGING Multiple Projects Is Not (Necessarily) Multitasking. Not unless you are managing too many or when you should be managing a particular issue on a particular project you suddenly switch to work on another project. Get my point?

So last night I put together an email to my client so he would have all my thoughts and references to link articles on the perils of multitasking and personal time management sort of an outline about what we would talk about next week. That task that should have taken maybe an hour and a half ended up taking me easily six hours.

Why?

I was multitasking.

I spent a lot of time wasting time in Quadrant IV activities that were Not Urgent & Not Important. We all know what I was doing. I was dawdling on FaceBook and YouTube. The “activities that are often used for taking a break from time pressured and important activities”.

Here’s a good article on the penalties you will pay for multitasking.