Anti-multi-tasker

What do you do when you have eight projects that need to get done at the same time?

I?m not a very good multi-tasker. Yeah, I admit it. I can try doing more than one thing at a time, like talk on the phone and type an email. But the truth is, I?m probably only half listening to the person on the other end and the email I?m typing probably doesn?t make sense. So really, instead of doing two things at once, I did neither one. At least not well.

Photo by GinnyLynni.

I can only focus on one thing at a time. I can usually do one unfocused activity (chewing gum, listen to music, doodle) while doing a focused task (emailing, designing, programming), but this is the extent of it. There are a lot of people who say they can multi-task, but have you ever been on the other end of phone of a person typing an email. Yeah, they aren?t paying attention to you unless you blurt out a key word like ?fire? or ?I?m pregnant? (I recommend trying this, I bet the person responds with ?Wait, what?? because they weren?t listening before that moment). I don?t know if other people?s focus can be on more than one thing at once, but I?m sure mine can not.

So what do I try to do when I have eight projects that need to get done at the same time? I start with the most urgent/important and work my way down the list. If I can, I ask for help. If I have to, I?ll stay later to get it finished. I can really only do one thing (well) at a time.

When you get through your list of things to do (or need a break), check us out at www.thinkmoxie.com or follow us on twitter.com/thinkmoxie.

? Post written by Cristy Wiza.