This is something that should be handled very carefully.
In fact it is in all senses a balancing act. It may very well for domestic
things,
but in y0our professional life, if you are not careful while balancing,
you could end up flat on your nose.
Multitasking
Let’s take a multitasking example. At home
I want to iron my clothes and it takes a couple of minutes for my electric
iron to heat up. At the same time I want to
make myself a cup of coffee so while the iron is heating up, I might as well
put the coffee maker on the stove. I need to make some toast for my breakfast
and after popping two slices of bread into the toaster; I can go back to the
ironing.
After ironing one shirt perhaps, I can take the boiling coffee off the
stove and remove the pieces of toast from the toaster. And at the end
of five minutes,
I have my coffee, two slices of toast and a freshly ironed shirt. But if I am
not careful, I could end up with two pieces of burnt bread, coffee that has boiled
over and spilled all over the stove and probably a singed shirt.
There is too
much balancing of actions involved here and it could get you quite worked
up. I would suggest that if you feel that you can do more than one thing
at a time, go ahead but limit the number to two or else you might end up messing
a whole lot of things. There are a lot of people who read their newspapers in
the loo. Well… I have my reservations about that, but if it saves time
for them, well and good.
Time Management Training Info Get Info on Time Management Training from 14 search engines in 1.
Time Management Training Looking for Time management training? Click here to Shop and Compare Online!
time management training Shop and compare deals on time management training at MonsterMarketplace.
Find time management training Helpful Links for time management training
Multitasking at the office
How do we do multitasking
at the office? In today’s hectic world, where there is so much distraction,
most of us hardly get any exercise. And since we are so starved for time, the
question of taking time off to get some exercise seems completely out of question.
I
think it would be a good idea to try and get some exercise while you are
in the office itself. When you are making a couple of telephone calls
together,
it would be a good idea to get up and walk up and down. If you have to sit
down,
stretch out your feet and try to wiggle your toes. This exercise has been
proved to be a great stress reliever.
If you have a cell phone, try and
get one of those hand free sets which you can attach to your body so
that your hands are free while you are talking.
This gives
you a chance to do something useful with your hands instead of just supporting
a hand set.
The essence of this lesson is that if you choose to do two things
at the same time make sure that one of those things is not very important
and does
not
require much attention. Otherwise, what will happen is that by dividing your
attention
to both those things, you might end up with two half baked pies, i.e. two
finished tasks that are in no way complete. The human brain is a remarkable
thing, there
is no denying that. And some of the luckier ones have better brains than
others. But all the same, trying to focus your attention on two important
things at
the same time, is really asking for too much.
If you want to get a real feel
of what I mean by mulittasking, try tapping your foot and snapping your
fingers at the same time but to a different beat. Before you know it,
one will have reached the beat of the other.
But of course, it is all a matter of common sense when it comes to choosing
which two things that you can do together at the same time. It certainly
will be ridiculous
for you to choose to clip you nails while you are attending a board meeting.
And it would be in bad taste to use a tooth pick while dictating a letter
to your secretary. But you can carry your lap top while you are traveling
and
work on it during a flight or train journey.
The concept of doing two things
at the same time is the underlying idea behind a working lunch. You get
to eat and at the same time you get to do business.
I will let you in on a small tip as far as working lunches are concerned.
It is always better to meet and do business with an important client over
lunch especially for which you are footing the bill of course.
One of the
advantages is that there is lesser chance for disturbances at a restaurant.
But the most important advantage is that when two people
sit together
and eat
together and probably have a glass of wine or two, they kind of open up.
Warm food has that effect on people.
Generally speaking, if your stomach
is happy and contented and your taste buds are tickled, then you are
happy. In such a circumstance you feel happy
with
whole world. And as for the person who treated you such a good lunch, oh
well, the
deal is his. There, you got your business didn’t you?
At such times,
you may try to remember that though your intention must have been to
conclude a good business, you must not forget to enjoy your
meal;
after all,
you are paying for it! |