How many resumes have you sent out listing “great multitasker” as one of your important work skills? A lot, I bet. While the ability to multitask is something to be proud of, it doesn’t really translate to being a productive trait. We’ve all come to accept that the ability to multitask is an ideal business virtue that solves all problems when it comes to work management. Now it seems that study after study deems multitasking is counterproductive.
Observe an office setting and you’ll immediately notice that may different activities and projects are being pursued at any given time. Many tasks get sidelined, tagged as unnecessary, go unfinished, labelled unimportant – all in the course of a project. No many how many people are on the team, or how many resources are poured into the project, there will always be tasks that we could have skipped over in order to get to the finish line.
The best industry leaders have the uncanny ability to focus on one point in the future even with chaos surrounding them. No matter how many moving targets there are, they keep their focus on the end goal. Most people would say it is a weakness to have such a limited point of view. But now, many people are beginning to see the proverbial bigger picture.
Nowadays, the operative word is “focus”. Time seems to slip by when you’re doing multiple tasks at a time. But really, the key is to identify those tasks that aren’t lean or streamlined, and then promptly abandon them. Because really, who would care if you let the lower priority tasks dwindle and die? No one really needs those hard copies, you can go with digital ones. Will painstakingly putting sticky tabs on the sign here spots really make that big a difference? The main idea is to not waste time doing tasks that are deemed low priority just for you to be able to say that you’re busy. Because that’s really what multitasking is, doing a high value job along with menial mindless tasks that you could just as easily do away with.
Here’s a trick that might work: President Dwight Eisenhower (a productivity powerhouse) once said “ what is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.” He has designed a matrix that’s great for weeding out what task can be addressed urgently and what needs to be focused on. Take a piece of paper and draw a cross, dividing the paper into 4 quadrants. Take a look at your to do list and decide whether they are urgent, not urgent, important, not very important. Your urgent and important tasks will fall under the “do it now” quadrant. Your important but not urgent tasks will fall under the “decide when” quadrant. Other task will fall under the “delegate” quadrant (who else can do it?) and the “delete” quadrant (these tasks are the ones you can ditch altogether).
Have you used the Eisenhower Matrix before? Have you had any success with it? Share your experience with us in the comments Stay humble and hustle hard.
Written by Jaie O. The Help
Motivation is a very important factor in all things we do. It is weird because it works differently for different people. Sometimes it is a switch that (extremely) lucky people can just turn on or off. For the rest of us, it is a snowball that has to be built in order to gain momentum.
Recently, I have heard news about a video circulating that had very disturbing content. It was a rockstar who streamed his own death on Facebook live. I had the good sense not to search for or watch the video because, seriously, that is the decent thing to do. It is the way we show our sincere condolences (even if we do not know the person) to those he has left behind.
How were our first few weeks at work? I know we’re still not over the holidays and our sleep cycles are still in vacation mode from all the partying done during the holiday season. I’m sure some of you have vowed to make 2019 your most productive year ever. How about we start by taking bedtime back! After all, a good night’s sleep guarantees more energy in the morning to be able to do the productive things we promised ourselves to do.