5 Tips to Help You Focus on Your Priorities
I gave a presentation not too long ago to a group of 40 professional women and one of them proclaimed she was the “Queen” of multi-tasking. She was proud. Really proud. And then I said, “This is not something you want to keep doing,” and I went on to explain the real definition of multi-tasking (which is really switch-tasking) and I also explained the definition of background tasking. One is quite harmless and the other is very harmful.
Professionals have come to believe multi-tasking is a coveted skill or that they’re supposed to do it. Oh, and I’ve heard this one too: “Women are really good at multi-tasking. We’re better at it than men. It’s natural for us to multi-task.”
Really?
Background tasking is fine and maybe that’s what some people are referring to, but multi-tasking is B-A-D. It’s bad for you, it’s bad for your productivity, it’s bad for the people around you and it could hurt your success.
Successful leaders in business definitely do not multi-task. Instead they actually have a distinct, razor-sharp focus on each thing or person they give their attention to… one at a time.
Here’s a great quote from Jim Collins, who wrote “Good to Great”:
“The real path to greatness, it turns out, requires simplicity and diligence. It requires clarity, not instant illumination. It demands each of us to focus on what is vital – and to eliminate all of the extraneous distractions.”
Yes! Eliminate extraneous distractions – and stop multi-tasking!
p>Our brains aim to focus on only one thing at a time, so distractions, interruptions and multi-tasking diminish the quality and productivity of anything you’re working on at any one time. While you probably have many projects and tasks in motion at different stages of completion, don’t give your attention to more than one thing at a time and expect to produce your best work.
One of the problems (especially in a corporate environment) is when someone interrupts you with a task. Your initial reaction is to take care of it right away because you don’t want to add one more thing to your to-do list. I know. I get it. Been there, done that. And I’ve worked with many clients who do the same thing. But sometimes it is better to make a note of the task, instead of doing it right away, so you can keep your focus rather than switch gears.
However, in the big picture, it’s best to stop the interruptions to begin with. In order to do that, you have to first protect your time. Here’s how:
- Next time you start working on something, notice what and who you allow to interrupt you while you’re working. Note how many distractions are finding you and why.
- Start blocking your time to protect it from giving it away to quickly or allowing others to steal it when you’re not looking. And protect this time ahead of time. If you wait too long, the days will sneak up on you and your time will be already gone.
- Shut your door if you have one and do this a couple times a day. Enjoy some quiet time while you work, as long as you don’t distract yourself.
- Let your phone calls go to voice mail. Ignore your e-mail for a little while. Get something done. Decide ahead of time what you’ll tolerate and what you won’t since you know what’s coming (especially if you’ve been tracking the results from doing the first step above). Remember – you get what you tolerate! Don’t just start your day hoping for the best. Have a plan.
- Strive to concentrate on only one thing at a time and do it well. Give each task your full attention whenever possible. The results will show a job well done and you’ll have confidence that what you produced was quality work, no matter how big or small the task.
