Fuelled by Coffee

  If multitasking doesn't work -  what can you do instead? Last week I wrote about the perils of multitasking , but I don’t believe it’s at all useful to illustrate a problem without offering a solution – so here are some suggestions which will help you stay focused and get the job done – one job at a time! Single-tasking – create a priority list and prioritize one task at a time. Give this task your full attention, complete it or make significant progress, and then move on to the next one on your list. Working this way can lead to deep work, where you’re immersed in a task and can get a lot done. Time Blocking – try scheduling specific blocks of time for different tasks or groups of tasks. This can reduce the mental load of deciding what you must do next and helps ensure that important tasks get the time they need. The 80/20 rule – The Pareto Principle where 80% of results come from 20% of the work you put in. Focus on the 20% of your to do list which are the most import...

We think we’re clever when we multitask –  don’t do it! We pride ourselves on our ability to do more than one task at a time, to split our brains into sections which focus on different jobs concurrently! Yep, we can do that. It’s very clever of us, but it comes at a cost. The multitasking we do results in more errors and stress and eventually leads to burnout. Last week I wrote about chasing shiny objects and being easily distracted from our core work as a result – multi-tasking is a bit like that. We distract ourselves from all the tasks we are trying to do by thinking about too many things. It may work for a while, or it may work for minor unimportant things, but long term it doesn’t work at all. Because we live in such a fast-paced world we feel under pressure to get more things done more quickly, but there is increasing scientific evidence that multi-tasking isn’t the productivity booster we once thought it would be. It can do more harm than good. Multi-tasking can do m...