Personal development: Multi-tasking downsides (Part 2) March 18, 2017
Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Goal Setting and Realization.Tags: life, multi-tasking, personal growth, self-improvement, task shifting, thoughts
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By Dennis Mellersh
In a previous post on multi-tasking, I talked about a possible outcome of multi-tasking — having a big to-do list and then madly dashing from one task to another doing a little bit here and there on each and not making much progress on any of them.
Even more problematic is when we do, or attempt to do, things at the same time which actually should only be done separately, such as:
* Checking our e-mail or (worse) writing it while talking with someone on the phone
* Thinking about our upcoming vacation while “listening” to a friend tell us about a problem they are trying to solve
* Using a mobile device, such as for texting, while driving (dangerous)
More sensible simultaneous multi-tasking examples could include:
*Ironing the laundry while cooking dinner
*Highlighting sections of a report we are writing with the purpose of using the highlighted items in an upcoming e-mail synopsis of the report
* Making some notes while our friend is telling us about their problem in order to help them more effectively
Multi-tasking can work as long as don’t take it to the extreme.
Personal development: Does multi-tasking have a downside? March 17, 2017
Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Goal Setting and Realization.Tags: life, multi-tasking, personal development, personal growth, philosophy, self-improvement, thoughts
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By Dennis Mellersh
In seeking to accelerate our progress towards reaching our potential through personal growth programs and their associated practices, we may be tempted to turn to multi-tasking as a solution.
But when the concept of multi-tasking is applied incorrectly then it is not necessarily an effective choice.
Multi-tasking will generally be counter-productive if it is viewed, for example, as having a big to-do list for the day and constantly jumping from one task to another, thus giving us the feeling that we are accomplishing a lot.
Unfortunately we are more likely to be doing our tasks less efficiently than if we tackled them one by one and focused on each of them separately until they are completed.
It’s hard to focus on two things at once and expect fully productive results.
It’s like the habit many of us have of reading a book, the newspaper, or a magazine, for instance, while we are eating.
We don’t get the same reward from either enjoying our food, or appreciating what we are reading, than if we did both tasks separately.
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