Stop the Multi-tasking Madness!

By Laura Benjamin

It was a morning just like any other. Rush! Rush! Rush! Quickly get through the routine of make-up, hair, and dressing to get on with the day's important work. As I stood over the sink with toothbrush in hand, it felt like the mundane things were taking too much time. Then it hit me! I could knock off the smaller items on my morning "to do" list at the same time the toothbrush was taking up real estate inside my mouth. Brushing your teeth is such empty time, after all. Why not fill it up with something more productive?

I leapt into action to hang up wet towels, turn off the coffeepot, turn on the computer and print out the email, while toothpaste burned a hole in the side of my cheek! Before long it was a habit, and I secretly prided myself in how many small things I could get done while happily scrubbing away at those pearly whites. Until today? As I searched for just one more thing to squeeze in before I had to spit, it occurred to me it would be a fine time to take care of that small tickle in my nose and I reached out that one free hand for the tissue paper!

I'd reached the limit - my multi-tasking madness had grown to such sick proportions that for a brief moment I actually believed I could blow my nose and brush my teeth at the same time!

New Heights of Insanity
Where is it written that multi-tasking is an occupation deserving of our admiration? There is an assumption we should try to accomplish more and more in our finite 24 hours/day and if we can't always streamline, be more efficient and be able to get it all done, there's something terribly wrong with us. "Slacker!" You hear your inner voice shouting.) "If you were a REAL professional of the new millennium, you'd have finished that report by now, rocked your child to sleep and defragged your computer all at the same time!"

Admit it. When you find yourself doing just one thing at a time, don't you feel a small twinge of guilt? Haven't you ever looked around to see if there was a way to "double up" on your activities in an effort to get more done? You're not alone. Millions of Americans suffer from the same guilt-induced motivation. We have been brainwashed into thinking that more has got to be better and mistakenly we idolize those who push the limits of human activity.

In a recent issue of Inc. Magazine, CEO Pat Cavanaugh was called the 24/7 CEO. He's lauded for his ability to rise at 4 a.m., schedule appointments for no longer than 20 minutes each, e-mail his staff a reminder on Sunday night of all the items they owe him on Monday morning, and make hundreds of sales calls a day! All this in an effort to outrun the demon that urges us to do more, more, more, and do it faster, faster, faster!

Many of today's common health problems can be attributed to stress. Twenty percent of Americans suffer from Irritable Bowel Syndrome, one quarter of our population has had some incident of mental health or drug/alcohol abuse, and over half of workers polled say they have experienced high levels of debilitating stress in their lives. It is time to evaluate the wisdom of adding "one more thing" to our daily activities rather than learning how to just do less!

These two simple steps may help you focus attention, reduce stress, and lessen your "to do" list burden:

Do One Thing at a Time
Slow down and focus on completing one task at a time before moving onto the next. Your added attention will increase efficiency and accuracy, allowing you to move through daily responsibilities in a more effective manner. Consider the hidden costs of errors and poor quality when you attempt to do more than one thing at a time. You may find it difficult at first, since there are always so many priorities tugging at your sleeve. Frame the following statement and hang it in front of your workspace? "What is the MOST important thing I should do RIGHT NOW?"

Remove One "Piece of Jewelry"
Coco Chanel recommends you remove one piece of jewelry after getting dressed each day. It's in the small act of deciding what to eliminate that establishes the value of what remains. Think about this process the next time you pack for a trip. You can only fit so much into that suitcase, so you mentally rehearse the weather and events you will face to decide which are the most important pieces of clothing you'll need.

If we blindly attempt to do it all, we never exercise the muscle of discrimination. We never learn how to choose appropriately, especially as it impacts our own health and happiness. Most importantly, we don't learn how to diplomatically negotiate with those who have some impact on our schedule and workload. What's our typical response? Try to get it all done in the only way we know how - we double-up.

Sensible Solutions
Living your life in "warp-drive" is a habit like any other. It is difficult to learn how to slow down and do one thing at a time when demands and priorities and people with authority are pressing on you from all sides. Here are some first steps to help you strengthen that discrimination muscle and slow down the RPMs:

At Work

Evaluate the meetings you attend and ask yourself:
  • Can someone else go in my place?
  • If I miss this meeting, will it impact my job, a project or a relationship?
  • Must I be there for the entire meeting?
  • Can the meeting be shortened?

Review your calendar and consider what you have scheduled into the upcoming week that you don't absolutely have to do or want to do. Then get on the phone and cancel, reschedule, or address the issue by phone or email.

When you do meet with an employee, peer or manager, be clear about the objectives and benefits you expect to get out of it. If there appears to be nothing you will gain from the meeting, don't do it just because someone asks you to. It may sound self-serving and it is! If you don't guard and prioritize your time and energy, who will?

Always err on the side of people versus machines. Avoid the temptation to type e-mail while speaking to someone in person or on the phone. It sends a strong message to the listener they're not valued enough to warrant your full attention. If on the phone, you can't avoid those brief pauses in conversation as you turn your focus to the keyboard and your listener quickly picks up on it.

At Home

Guard your family time aggressively. Limit the number of nights each week you will be out of the house for music lessons, sports, conferences or work-related issues and only compromise in the case of extreme emergencies.

Turn off the TV! It's impossible to listen to your child's troubled day, help with homework or converse with your spouse while the television is screaming for your attention.

Enjoy the experience of doing something well. Pick a project you can lose yourself in if only for one hour. Don't try to squeeze in a load of laundry at the same time, talk on the phone or sandwich it in between trips to the grocery store. Give yourself one uninterrupted hour and see what that feels like. You'll want more of it!

Revel in the pleasures of eating a good meal, savoring that dessert, enjoying a backrub or sitting quietly in front of the fire for 5 minutes without doing anything else. The key here is to do your reveling at a time you know won't be interrupted.

Finally, recognize that your time at home with family is precious and limited. The objective isn't to see how many things we can get done by Sunday evening to feel successful or worthwhile. Our objective is to strengthen relationships with the people we love, take care of ourselves in an environment where we have a little more control than at work, and spend our time on the things we enjoy. Life is not a race.

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Laura Benjamin writes, speaks, and consults on creating infectious environments for positive growth and is a featured guest on radio and television. For more information, visit her website at www.laurabenjamin.com or email: laura@laurabenjamin.com.