Friday, December 15, 2006

Multi-tasking is Bad

Multitasking guyThrough circuitous routes I found myself reading a delightful blog called "Brazen Careerist" by Penelope Strunk. This is one I'll definitely be adding to my Google Reader list. The post I first read was about time management in a multi-tasking world. Penelope offers ten tips on how to be more effective with our time even as technology continues to place greater and greater demands on us.

I loved tip #2 -- Admit multitasking is bad. This one goes right to the heart of some of my personal time management challenges. I've tried to convince myself in the past that I could just quickly check my email in the middle of my programming time, or watch TV while answering my email, or play a quick game of solitaire while waiting for a long upload to complete. Looking back, though, trying to do two things at once, just made things take a lot longer than if I had just done them sequentially (or not at all, in the case of the TV thing). I would have been much better off focusing my attention wholly on the one task at hand (and making sure that this task is a priority).

So, this is something that I want to work on, as I move more into my new career as a self-employed business owner. Wish me luck. Old habits die hard.

So, which of the ten tips speaks most clearly to you?

17 days.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi, Greg. Thanks for linking to Brazen Creerist. I have always struggled with time management. But when I made the swtich from corporate employee to self-employed, I found that I became a better time manager because more than in a corporate job, my success depends on it. Maybe you will find the same is true for you.