What’s with the glorification of multi-tasking? How did that even happen?
I was chatting on Facebook with a friend yesterday who said “Oh! There’s another distraction…I can’t seem to get anything finished”…
There it is, right there. Multi-tasking. Juggling emails, content creation, delivery, new ideas, your to do list, messages, kids, phone calls and all the other things that we have going on.
WHEN DID IT BECOME ‘JUST HOW WE DO IT’?
We’re high achievers, right?
We like to get a lot done.
But here’s the thing…. When you look at your to-do list at the end of the day and most of it IS NOT ticked off, how does it make you feel?
Cue the thoughts of:
· I need more hours in the day
· I should be more efficient
· Why can everyone else get their stuff done
· I’m overwhelmed
· Then the anxiety kicks in about how much you have left to do tomorrow and carry over
· I still have xyz to do
· I’m not good enough
· I’ll never get there
· I feel like a failure
Sound familiar?
Well, let the message that I share with you today be motivating in a way that’s going to make you feel GOOD:
· We all do it and it’s an addictive behaviour
· We get USED to that feeling of anxiety and overwhelm and inadvertently re-create it every single day of every week UNLESS we do something about it
Here’s what I want you to do:
STOP IT. I want you to create a list of things that you KNOW that you can achieve TODAY AND TODAY ONLY.
Micro-tasks. Break all the things that you feel like you need to do DOWN INTO SMALLER chunks.
For example. If you need to answer emails. Set a time that you will do this. And stick to that time. Nobody is going to sack you/not buy from you/the world will not END if you don’t answer that email TODAY or straight away. (And if they do/do not because of that, they were looking for an easy out anyway).
If you need to film a blog, break that down into :
· what’s the topic
· what are the stories
· set up the lights and camera
· find outfit to wear
· film blog
· upload to computer for editing
· edit blog
· share to YouTube, Vimeo and FB
· Upload to website
· Email list
So that ONE thing can be broken down…. THAT WAY (and I LOVE this one!) it means you can TICK OFF MULTIPLE things, which then increases your feelings of ACHIEVEMENT.
Let’s face it. Each of those things takes TIME. And rather than just a BIG task (filming a blog) NOT being ticked off at the end of the day, you’ve got the micro-tasks being done.
The next thing to really FOCUS on, is doing JUST ONE THING at a time.
So if you’re going to write something, turn off your emails and your phone and FOCUS on ONE thing only.
Because the thing that happens is that everything runs slower.
Take for example your computer browser. How many tabs do you have open. You get a ping from FB and jump over there. But then you were part way doing some research for something else. And in the next tab you were doing your banking. And in the next you were in your CRM scheduling an email. And then… golly!!! So many distractions and then, at the end of the day, you realise you didn’t actually finish anything.
So FOCUS on ONE thing at a time! This is something that I’m still getting better at. Aeroplane mode on my phone is GODSEND, just quietly!!!
So get your microtasks written out. It will help you be more PRODUCTIVE and feel like you’ve ACHIEVED more than just ‘one thing’ at the end of the day.
Let me know how you go with it!