Multitasking is the art of distracting yourself

Life is 10 percent what you make it, and 90 percent how you take it.

Irving Berlin

At the end of the day do feel like you’ve accomplished anything?  Not that you haven’t worked hard.  Do more with less and all that.  Juggling everything and keeping 10 balls in the air with grace and poise.  But, is there a sense that you’re really accomplishing something important.  Being really important.  Are you getting better?  Is you’re ladder leaning against the right wall?  Or is it a rat race where everything gets pushed forward an inch with little direction?

Multitasking is the art of distracting yourself from two things you’d rather not be doing by doing them simultaneously.  Multitasking is not what’s it’s made out to be.  In the self development, getting things done, execute, productive world, there is a push back from being the superhuman that can juggle 15 things at once.  Living in mayhem and confusion.  Focus is today’s approach. 

1. The best way to be more productive is to focus on your most important task. For example, if you have two projects to finish today and you could only finish one, which one is more important for you to complete. Would you A. call a client to get a sale, or B. e-mail everyone that you will be out of town for two weeks? That might be a simple choice, but the reason it is important is that getting your priority items done first frees your mind to accomplish everything else that you need to do for the day. Also, if all that you accomplished on any given day was your top priority, then at least you made some progress. The idea behind this comes from the Pareto principle, which states that only 20% of what we do have a real impact. The rest is useless work that can be outsourced or eliminated from your day. Use this in every aspect of your life and you will see tremendous growth in everything you do.

2. Now that you have figured out what is most important, the opportunity is to plan your day accordingly. Rate the importance of everything you do in a day from A to E. After you have completed everything ranked A you can then go to B, and so on. The idea is a continuation of the Pareto Principle mentioned above. Remember that anything marked E is probably something that you do not need to do. Knowing what you have to do will make it that much easier to get it done.

3. After you have determined the order of importance for what you are doing today, the key is to do each task until it is finished. Multitasking does not work. Instead it decreases people's efficiency and they end up spending longer amounts of time on everything they are working on for, the day. Work on one thing at time and have all the tools you need to complete it at your fingertips. Then when you are finished you can move onto the next project faster and more effectively.

From Brian Tracy’s Eat That Frog

Are you easily distracted? NYT has a test for distractions that is fun.  Check out  http://www.nytimes.com/ No, really check it out.

I talked with Paula last night about social networking.  I think that Twitter and Facebook are the anti-Zen of productivity (witness a recent post that included the Gaping Void image).  She has some interesting thoughts about the use and demographics of social networking.  Maybe we’ll see a comment or a post from Words at Work.

Well if you really like the sugar rush of connectivity, Check out Seesmic Desktop where you can manage your online profiles from one place.  I liked the image from Gaping Void.  Check out http://gapingvoid.com/

 

I prepared this post while waiting for a conference call to start, and printing a report.  I guess I have some work to do around focus.  One issue I had with prioritization and focus is that if you let focus on actions overwhelm relationships, you’re in trouble.

While we’re on productivity and focus.  Make sure that you watch one in three and ensure that health remains a major priority.  Scary. http://www.1in3people.com

Also see http://www.dagc.org/ for the statistics and trends on diabetes.

The extrapolation from the trends indicate that 1 in 3 will have hypertension and/or diabetes in their lifetime.  Make an effort to prioritize spirit, family, health, and work. And make sure that the ladder you are climbing is leaning against the right wall.

Start Now!

Beauty on the outside never gets into the soul, but beauty of the soul reflects itself on the face.

Fulton J. Sheen

A habit is defined as the intersection of knowledge, skill, and desire. You may know you need change, you may even know how to change, but, without desire, change may elude you.

Stephen R. Covey