Overcoming Multitasking Madness for a More Efficient Workflow
Karen’s latest book, No Nonsense: Time Management: 50 Tips to Hack Your Time and Get Everything Done is now available for order on Amazon. Today, Karen tackles one of the topics addressed in the book, a problem all of us face: multitasking madness.
Studies have found that when people switch back and forth between tasks, they experience substantial losses in efficiency and accuracy — in some cases as much as 50%. In today’s non-stop tech world overcoming multitasking is a critical part of learning to work from home efficiently.
Tips
- Turn off your tech — the frequent bells and whistles coming from your devices can easily lead you to stray from the job at hand- stop it before it even starts. Try airline mode or even software that prevents access for a certain period of time.
- Create task times — set aside specific time windows to do one task, or one type of task- i.e. your phone calls, your emails, etc.
- Make the most of mornings — spend your first hour doing a task that requires focus, and don’t check your email before then.
- Track your to-dos — build a capture system to write down all your to-dos instead of trying to do them right away.
- Desktop inbox — create a space on your desk where you can temporarily place items that need attention so you can easily find them.
- Plan open space — Give yourself space and time to catch up on new things that have come in or to process late to-dos. Leave 15 minutes between each Zoom call.
- Don’t multitask, multi-purpose — listen to a business book while driving, catch up on reading while on the treadmill, do some paperwork in your various appointment waiting rooms, etc.
About Karen Tiber Leland
Karen Tiber Leland is the founder of Sterling Marketing Group, a branding, marketing, and color strategy and implementation firm helping CEOs, executives, and entrepreneurs develop stronger personal, business, and team brands. Her clients include Cisco, American Express, Marriott Hotels, Apple Computer, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
She is also the best-selling author of nine traditionally-published business books that have sold over 400,000 copies and been translated into 10 languages. Her most recent book is The Brand Mapping Strategy: Design, Build and Accelerate Your Brand. She regularly writes for Inc.com and Entrepreneur.com and has had articles published in Self, The Los Angeles Times, American Way, The Boston Globe, and many others.
Karen has spoken for Harvard, The AMA, Direct Marketing Association, and Stanford, among others. She has been interviewed on The Today Show, CNN, CNBC, and Oprah.
Get in touch with Karen on Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook
Resources
Karen’s tenth book, No Nonsense: Time Management: 50 Tips to Hack Your Time and Get Everything Done, was written with her former business partner Keith Bailey. The book offers a practical approach to tackling the kinds of productivity issues we face in today’s technological world.
You’ll find practical ways of assessing your relationship with time, avoiding interruptions and distractions by goal-setting, multi-purposing versus multitasking, delegating, managing online and offline meetings, maximizing to-do lists and minimizing unfinished business, embracing personal productivity habits, and right-sizing your social media and email, as well as many more readily actionable tips and tricks to hack your time.
Find it in print on Amazon and other online retailers.
Mentioned
“Executive Control of Cognitive Processes in Task Switching”, by Rubinstein, Meyer, and Evans
Never Check Email In The Morning: And Other Unexpected Strategies for Making Your Work Life Work, by Julie Morgenstern
Tweetables and Quotes to Share
The ding of the email, the ping of the text, I know those things can seem harmless but they can really tempt you to stray from the job at hand. PODCAST: Thought Talk @KarenFLeland
Set aside a particular set of time to do all your phone calls, your emails, your errands, to work on your project. PODCAST: Thought Talk @KarenFLeland
Capture your to-dos in writing, any system will work, but make sure you have one to keep that kind of track. PODCAST: Thought Talk @KarenFLeland
Instead of booking every minute of every day, leave some time open where you can actually catch up on things that come in, or process items that have been hanging around. PODCAST: Thought Talk @KarenFLeland
Multitasking is really defined by the switching back and forth, and it’s the switching of your attention back and forth that creates a problem. PODCAST: Thought Talk @KarenFLeland
You don’t want to multitask, but you do want to multi-purpose. PODCAST: Thought Talk @KarenFLeland
