Time Management Expert, Event Speaker: Mark Lamendola

Productivity Case Histories | Productivity improvement articles | Time Tips Articles
 

Productivity Knowledge Base: Multitasking. Cure or curse?

Many time management "experts" tell you how to multi-task. Others tell you to avoid it as much as possible. Who is right? A thoughtful examination will reveal the answer, and it will show you how to boost efficiency and productivity.

Let's take a sample situation. Dave and Debbie are sales people. They have vastly different styles.

Here's a conversation Dave is having with a customer, via his cell-phone, while driving between appointments.

Dave: "Yeah, Carol. This is Dave at ACME Construction. Hello?"
Carol: "I'm here. I missed part of what you said, but I know it's you. Do you have the figures on that bid you were going to send us?"
Dave: "No, not yet. I...."
Dave: "Sorry about that. Cellphone cut out on me. You wanted what?"
Carol: "We have an update. Are you ready to take down some information?"
Dave: "Sure. Let me cradle this phone and prop some paper on the steering wheel."

The above scenario is typical. Dave is just responding, just coping with inflow. And he's very dangerous while on the road. Now, let's look at Debbie.

Debbie: "Hi, Carol. This is Debbie at ACME Construction. I'm actually traveling right now, but I took a break to look after my clients. I just got off the phone with Roger at the office and he's e-mailing you our bid. Is there anything else you need?"
Carol: "Yes, there were some changes we needed to make."
Debbie: "Well, I am sitting here with my laptop fired up and your account file open. Fire away, and I'll make it happen."

Which of the two is going to make a better impression on Carol, not to mention the Highway Patrol? In just this small example, we saw that Dave's multitasking created a dismal performance, while Debbie's ability to focus allowed her to fully serve her customer.

The human mind is composed of several functional areas. Each of these areas is capable of doing only one thing at a time. Tasks like driving and writing cannot be done simultaneously. You have to switch between them. There is some switching cost in processing power every time your mind switches between tasks. When you are trying to carry on a phone conversation and read e-mail, this becomes readily apparent. Not only is it rude, but it requires you to take more time to have the conversation and read the e-mail than if you did the tasks separately.

When multitasking results in a performance hit, you can arrive at an efficiency of zero. For example, a customer calls Dave. Dave is busy multitasking, and the customer--now feeling like Dave isn't listening, takes his money elsewhere.

For electrical contractors, multitasking can literally be the kiss of death. When electricians are around energized circuits, they cannot be talking about their outside interests or engaging their minds in anything other than the work at hand. Another word for multitasking is "inattention." Keep that in mind, and you'll be much further ahead.

Finally, consider that a core concept in martial arts is summed up in one word: Focus.

 

 

More thoughts on time management

The phrase "time management" is an unfortunate language quirk. You can't really manage time. It just is. You can't gain time, create time, or even lose time. Time is what it is, regardless of what we do. And, paradoxically, many common "time management" techniques and practices are timewasters because they divert limited resources (such as time) to the wrong things.

It would be better to say "time allocation" or "activity management" "time usage" or some other phraseology to indicate that it's not time itself you're managing but how you use the time that exists. But we'll use the common terminology here to avoid confusion.

Some things time management is not:

  • Being more efficient. Suppose you become very efficient at making buggy whips. Does this fact mean you are managing your time well?
  • Getting more done in a given amount of time. Getting more done of what? And to what degree of quality? If you rake the leaves on a lawn from one side to the other all day long, does that mean you are a good time manager?
  • Being able to juggle multiple priorities. Instead of juggling priorities, assign priorities. First tend to the urgent things, then the most important things.
  • Mastering multi-tasking. This concept conflicts with what we know about the human brain. If you buy into this self-defeating, time-wasting, quality-killing ideology, you might also be interested in practicing solo flight by flapping your arms frantically.
  • Working faster. No, this mode is how you make mistakes that you subsequently have to spend more time fixing.

Some things good time management involves:

  • Deciding what to do. This is trickier than it sounds. Which is why there are time management experts.
  • Deciding what not to do. This is even trickier than deciding what to do. Which is why there are time managers and why discipline is a huge, huge factor in accomplishing this.
  • Deciding what to do when, and in what order. In essence, prioritization.
  • Determining the scope, goals, and metrics for each activity you undertake. In this area, we the find most room for improvement. Precision here allows you to avoid waste on the one hand, and falling short on the other.
  • Planning out the work, task, project, or activity such that you determine the necessary steps to quality completion. That is, what must you do to meet the intended goal and quality metrics?
  • Identifying unnecessary steps. Get this right, and you can cut your wasted hours significantly.
  • Figuring out what resources to use. Not all resources applicable to a task are equal. Picking the right tool for the job saves time, improves quality, and makes life less stressful.

We've highlighted only some of the factors involved in good time management. We actually teach extreme time management, which is a methodology that allows you to make effective use of your time almost second nature. You don't need a complicated system. Our system puts many of the variables on autopilot, so you have more time to do what you need to do. Our system goes way beyond most other systems in results, yet is far simpler.

Contact us for a presentation to your organization: comments @ mindconnection.com (remove the spaces after pasting into your e-mail client's "to" box.