BE A TASK MANAGER
Friday July 21, 2017
Try doing two things at once. Doesn’t have to be complicated – could be cooking a meal while listening to news, could be reading newspaper while talking on the phone, could be typing something important while someone is talking loud in the next room …
We all create thousands of duo-tasking examples – and become so comfortable with doing many things at once. ‘Multi-tasking’ permeates our language without a ripple of concern; indeed many employers and customers would be dismayed if we said ‘I can’t multi-task’. We do multi-task. In so doing we ‘fail to be 100%’ at many things all at the same time …
Next time you see your sports heroes in dying moments of a game, moments before the buzzer or rowing or running like crazed animals to finish line, ask yourself, “how well they are multi-tasking?”
Multi-tasking and focused committed excellence are not alike – they are opposites.
Excellence in any one thing, however swiftly we complete it, requires our focus. Focus, complete, move on. Focus, complete, move on. Focus, complete, move on.
Excellence is single-tasking with intensity and focus, excellence is not a blend or brew or stew – it is purity of intent, purpose and execution.
Every time we do something fantastic, memorable and worthy of bragging rights, we were single-tasking. Every time we do something poorly, forgettable and sub-par, we were multi-tasking.
Next time we pick up a file, the phone or ‘the pieces’ of anything – we ensure ‘less than our best’ if we are multi-tasking, every time.
Athletes in training work-out six to eight hours every day.
When you go to work, what are you in training for?
