The Secret To Successful Multi Tasking

Learn what the top PA’s and Secretaries have known for years

Multi-tasking refers to focusing your attention on more than one thing at once. Successful multi-tasking requires concentration, organization, careful planning, and discretion.

Doing two or more things at once is no easy proposition-in fact, some experts claim it isn’t even possible. Instead, they claim, what we are really doing when we multi-task is task switching, focusing our attention rapidly back and forth between two jobs. For instance, if we are trying to write a status report while talking on the phone, we pay attention to the phone call for a few seconds, and then focus on what we’re writing, and then return our attention to the phone call.

Sometimes when we multi-task like this, we can get into trouble. We may miss what our customer is trying to tell us, for instance, or become distracted and write the wrong thing on the report. Therefore, it’s important to be aware of what is going on around us and focus our attention where it needs to be at the moment. Thus if the routine phone call takes an unexpected turn, we need to pick up on this fact quickly and turn all our concentration toward the phone call until this issue is resolved.

Organization and planning are also key to multi-tasking. Tasks should be organized in two ways. First, it’s important to prioritize. What needs to be done this morning? This afternoon? What can wait until tomorrow?

Second, think about how much time and concentration each task will take. Perhaps you know you can do your time sheets in just a few minutes and that, because you have done them so often, you won’t need to give them a lot of focus in order to complete them. Projects like this are ideal for successful multi-tasking. Pick two or three tasks that won’t take a lot of your time or energy and work on them together. For instance, you can multi-task neatening your desk and making routine phone calls or sending emails and doing some easy online research. Getting these less taxing projects out of the way at once allows you to quickly clear these items from your schedule, making time for the projects that take longer and require greater concentration.

When you are working on several projects that require your full concentration, schedule your time. For instance, you might plan to work for one hour on the first project, then switch off and work another hour on the second project. Or you may decide to work to a pre-arranged stopping point on one project and then switch off.

Finally, it’s important to know when multi-tasking is not a good idea. Some jobs are simply not amenable to multi-tasking. For instance, one common method of multi-tasking is to drive and talk on one’s cell phone at the same time. Numerous studies have shown that talking on a cell phone while driving can lead to accidents, because the brain cannot simultaneously process the information from the road and the information you are receiving on the cell phone.

So before trying to multi-task, ask yourself if you really can perform two or more tasks at once without your performance suffering accordingly. If the answer is no, multi-tasking is probably not the best way to handle the projects at hand.

Multi-tasking is a quick way to get routine projects completed and free up your time for more complex jobs. But successful multi-tasking requires some advance planning and a good deal of discretion.