Multi-Tasking Time Management Myth
It’s always the same when I continue to push my own multi-tasking boundaries, adapting to new demands and environments, I add a new task to my list and forget to take into account an existing task. Couple this added responsibility to my daily routine with a new piece of ‘efficient’ technology and boom! There I blow!
Take my recent mess up. I went to a meeting with my new blackberry, having set up all my tones for its various functions. I had a few minutes to kill before my meeting started and had to figure out silencing my phone ringing, but “why stop there?” I have a new management tool that needs investigating and personalising…
My accountant was early and before I could finish checking I had set everything correctly, I decided I would check later… fatal.
Fatal in particular to my constantly evolving professional training schedule. Three training sessions missed now, because I switched off my tone and vibrate alarm for my meeting schedule on my new phone! Sigh…
This lack of checking at completion of tasks has always been problematic for me. Hey, I have borderline A.D.H.D. which means I am easily distracted and get bored with menial, uncreative tasks. Administration of any aspect of my business is something I have to really focus on! Nevertheless, I still seem able to kid myself that I do a really good job of it… I don’t. In fact, if I am perfectly honest with myself AND you, I’m probably average.
I suspect I am not alone in kidding myself that I am great at multi-tasking. After all, isn’t that what we women pride ourselves on? But I was really relieved to hear on the radio and stumble across a reference online to a piece of research which says that we mere mortal humans are actually potentially really bad at it, particularly if we believe we are effective at multi-tasking.
My way of coping with my attention deficit, is to keep a diary, a digital weekly schedule and I use this great digital memo tool It was recommended to me by a highly successful woman entrepreneur with kids – a species I particularly respect for their incredible time-management skills.
I have all my scheduled adminstrative tasks in here. What’s great about that is that when I one day get to the point of hiring a personal assistant, I will be able to share all of this work its glorious technicolour notes function with them and let it all go… to move onto higher administration! : )
I learned that it takes approximately 21 minutes to return to a main task and have fully functional focus there after any distraction… I jsut wish I had the heart to kick Moby, my office colleague out of my work space, because he does regularly dictate my schedule… (he’s getting old), but the truth there… he is a distraction which keeps me happy. It’s being at home working with him that makes all the plate-spinning and frustration at my own imperfection worthwhile…
Speaking of which, time for walkies… let’s see if I can squash in a video whilst out there! : )
What’s your office distraction you need to eliminate?
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