Multi-tasking and focus

I do not believe anyone multi-tasks effectively. By “effectively” I mean doing each of the tasks undertaken simultaneously as well as each of those tasks would be done if focused on separately.  I have friends who claim to be great multi-taskers.

Actually, I think I’m a pretty good multi-tasker, but that doesn’t mean it’s the optimum approach to handling those tasks. In my work, I bounce around from one thing to another all day long–writing this blog entry, checking email and sending messages, answering a call, checking on some background info for a proposal I’m writing, listening to new music for my show, talking to various staff, talking to visitors, planning for an upcoming event, checking scheduling info, keeping one ear on what’s going on over our airwaves, checking what’s new on our webiste…etc etc etc. (And you thought radio was a glamour job!)

Don’t think the challenge of multi-tasking is strictly a condition of  the 21st century. Lizzie Stutzman, my Amish neighbor, juggles eight children, planting and managing an enormous garden for home use and for the family’s produce stand, teaching in the neighborhood Amish school, making much of the clothing worn by her kids–including the straw hats, helping in the hay fields, helping with barn chores…etc etc etc. (And you thought the Amish life was romantic.)

Find out how well-focused you are, and how you deal with multi-tasking by taking the test in this NY Times piece.  A related article  in today’s NY Times is here.

Tags: focus, multi-tasking