It’s actually a tip you’ve heard of …
But you’ve probably ignored it.
Or announced to others that “you’re different.”
Unless you’re a piece of hardware, you need this tip.
It’s okay – you can start it with small doses.
It’s hard to break the “addiction”. I know.
Just because you’ve not died (yet) from chronic multi-tasking, it doesn’t mean it’s a good habit for you to keep carrying along.
It’s a myth to believe that doing MANY things, all at the same time, makes you more productive.
It doesn’t.
(I’m not just saying this. The research is out there that proves this as well if you don’t believe me.)
I’m still struggling myself to not fall back into that trap of busy-ness & multi-tasking is success. It’s not.
It is true that you can do a familiar, physical task WHILE doing something mental. Like gardening while listening to a podcast.
This is not the same as attending a meeting while playing Candy Crush on your smart phone.
Remember – this isn’t about whether you can muddle through something, it’s about choosing and creating habits that let you live with more energy and productivity. And if you want those things, you need to stop all the multi-tasking and let your brain focus fully on the mental activity in front of you.
It’s the productive, High Performance thing to do …
It’s fine to start off with some baby steps while weaning yourself from the “rush” of multi-tasking. You can start by designating one block of time in the morning and one in the afternoon where you COMMIT to single-tasking on something on your ToDo List.
One. Thing. At. A. Time:
Start allowing yourself to single-task more
That’s the productivity tip that most people are still ignoring. It’s almost like The Fear of Missing Something looms SO large that you cannot help but try to keep juggling it all.
Do you have a friend or co-worker that REALLY needs to stop multi-tasking? Feel free to share this link with them. But just not during your 1-on-1 meeting with them as that would be rude. And hypocritical.