What To Know About Multitasking For Business
It’s long been thought that working hard means putting in a long day of hours, lots of effort towards tasks, and generally thinking about projects constantly. Although these are good practices, and ones that show lots of commitment and motivation, do they always translate into more effective work and higher sales, or are they are just spinning their wheels looking like they are working hard rather than working effectively. The following is some things to know about multitasking for business.
These days everyone wants to multitask and they want to get as much done as possible in the shortest amount of time. However, a recent study suggested that the work that is being done while multitasking is not as effective as work that is being done on a singular basis. The study suggested that while people can multitask, the quality of work for the task goes done or lacks the highest quality. Although this is fine for some meaningless tasks, it may not be as effective for important tasks.
What To Know About Multitasking For Business:
- Prioritize tasks to decide if it’s worth multitasking or if it’s more important that requires undivided attention
- Choose times in the day to multitask on smaller priorities while leaving time to focus on the important tasks
- Find ways to make work more effective and help cut down on time needed for tasks
- Get others involved and use strengths of others to help get projects done
For example, a person answer a phone and printing out a document is fairly easy on both fronts, so these two task could be done together and with pretty good accuracy and quality. However, if you try throwing in writing a letter while talking to a person, then there may be some down grade either in the quality of the conversation or listening, or the letter that they person is writing will suffer. This means that although it’s good to get more done at one time, a person needs to evaluate if the project would be better suited for individual attention rather than multiple ones.
The study also suggested that although people are getting more done while multitasking, that the work is not as good so there may not be as much benefit to getting things done quickly, as they are quality. This is saying that it might be better for a company that prides itself in quality product to not allow their people to multitask and would rather them focus on one thing at a time to ensure the highest quality product.
Although many people believe multi-tasking is a good thing and makes people more productive, it may not make them more efficient and may result in lower quality, or additional work if the first task was not completed accurately. An example of this would be a secretary who is taking calls while trying to type an important letter. They are able to get things done and complete both tasks, but maybe there was a typo in the letter that the person missed while trying to get so many things done. Now, the letter gets sent out and it causes more problems because there was a typo. This means that although the person completed all tasks and was able to multi-task, the work suffered and may cause more work down the road, rather than just focusing on one things and getting it done completely. Multitasking will always be apart of business,but it’s important to find more ways to do this effectively.
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What is the old saying “Jack of all trades, master of none” this kind of applies to what you are stating. I would think there is a burn out factor over time unless you are well trained to switch gears that fast.
Regards
We agree also. There is a time and place for multitasking, but if you have something that is really important, that I would multitask on it. The project will come out better if a person focuses on the task at hand rather than juggling multiple things at once. Thanks for sharing you thoughts.
Like in this line?
They are able to get things done and complete both tasks, but may there was a typo in the letter that the person missed while trying to get so many things done
Thanks for the update and yes very good point indeed.
Great points. I think a good analogy for effective multi-tasking is the computer. It will provide resources to programs with higher priority without sacrificing quality. But we’re not computers so I try not to multi-task unless of course, I’m doing two really simple things…
Of course multitasking makes a difference depending on what tasks are being done, but few can be done well at the same time. If people spent even a portion of all the time they try to be more productive on starting the right thing (most important) first and just focusing on that for a short while and doing that every single day, the whole productivity problem would go away. Do the right things first. Its simple!
The funny thing is that research has shown people are incapable of “multi-tasking” - we are actually “task-switching”. Our brains cannot focus on more than one thing at a time, but it can switch quickly between things. For simple things this is usually not a problem, but for complicated tasks, there can be measurable time lost between tasks getting yourself back up-to-speed. The best way to be productive is to focus on one thing at a time and get it done before moving on. Unless you take advantage of the forth tip in this post - get others involved - only then can multiple tasks be completed at the same time!