Are You A Successful Multi-Tasker?

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I was talking recently to my grandmother who is 86 and realized that our lives are chaotic in comparison to how she grew up.  It is like night & day. As busy entrepreneurs it seems it has almost become a necessity to do multiple things all at once.

Ladies & gentlemen we have become modern day jugglers. (Cue the laugh track)

But I need you to stop for one second (because I know you are probably multi-tasking right now:) and ask yourself are you getting things done effectively? According to an article on LifeHacker.com by Ciara Conlon, "Some research has shown multitasking to reduce productivity by 40%."

I definitely agree with this.

As I was writing this blog post it took me extra long because I thought it was necessary to check updates on my phone and my email. Trust me nothing was a 911 emergency that couldn't have waited.  

NPR.org interviewed a professor of neuroscience at MIT Earl Miller, who said for the most part, "We simply can't focus on more than one thing at a time". He goes on to say, "What we can do, is shift our focus from one thing to the next with astonishing speed. Switching from task to task, you think you're actually paying attention to everything around you at the same time. But you're actually not".  In an article on Mashable.com, it states "that only 2% of people can multitask effectively". 

WOW!

So How Can You Become A Successful Multi-tasker?

The short answer is you can't. It's a sobering thought huh? The good news is that you can become more successful at getting tasks done. It is very simple: Focus. John Lee Dumas from Entrepreneur On Fire.com always says Follow One Course Until Success = Focus. If you want to learn more about his thoughts on this check out his blog post right here.

Final Thoughts

So I want to leave you with these thoughts:

  • Mult-tasking is a lie

  • Get focused

  • Delegate what you don't need to do

  • Stop worrying

  • Start being successful because now you are getting more done by doing less

Let me know what you think & of course Keep It Sunny!