How often do you think you multitask, and why?

The One Thing Review

Chapter Title: Multitasking Pages 46-58

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Here are some of my highlighted points from the chapter.

• Multitasking is a lie.

• Multitasking is merely the opportunity to screw up more than one thing at a time.

• The concept of humans doing more than one thing at a time has been studied by psychologists since the 1920s, but the term “multitasking” didn’t arrive on the scene until the 1960s. It was used to describe computers, not people.

• It (multitasking) was a clever turn of phrase that’s misleading, for even computers can process only one piece of code at a time.

• It’s not that we have too little time to do all the things we need to do, it’s that we feel the need to do too many things in the time we have.

• Researchers estimate that workers are interrupted every 11 minutes and then spend almost a third of their day recovering from these distractions. And yet amid all of this we still assume we can rise above it and do what has to be done within our deadlines.

• Multitaskers experience more life-reducing, happiness- squelching stress.

• The people we live with and work with on a daily basis deserve our full attention. When we give people segmented attention, piecemeal time, switching back and forth, the switching cost is higher than just the time involved. We end up damaging relationships.

How often do you think you multitask, and why?

Whether we choose to multitask or whether we’re “forced” to do so, multitasking isn’t something that we do well. This chapter was very enlightening for me. I learned some very direct lessons about myself and others. The biggest thing that I learned was just how important it is for me to work with people who have a niche that they're passionate about. Or those who are hungry to find their niche.

I realized that when we specialize in something that we’re passionate about, we’re going to naturally want to learn all that we can in that area. And I believe that having an abundance of knowledge in one area will lead to us to making faster and better decisions in that particular area. Therefore when two people with similar niches talk, their conversations are going to be much more efficient and productive. The concept is simple, yet so powerful when think you about it.

Take Nate and I for example, we’re both passionate about the real estate business. Most of Nate’s experience in real estate is as an investor, whereas mine is with assisting others to invest. So when we communicate on the topic of investing, we tend to draw very fast conclusions. In the reverse, if Nate and I were to discuss Trigonometry, the conversation would not be as productive or efficient because I know nothing about the subject. Although I’m sure I would learn something since Nate likes to teach, it just wouldn’t be great because I have no passion for the subject.

I believe that in order for us to be efficient and productive in life, we must work closer with those who have similar niches that they’re passionate about. If not, the distractions that the nicheless people will encounter can easily force them into a downward spiral of ineffective multitasking. This spiral will result in poor conversations, failed projects, lost revenue, and worse...wasted time that we will NEVER get back. If you don’t have one already, make finding your niche your ONE Thing.

Man was this chapter good, I think I’ll have to read it a few more times. Well, until next time, make today a great multitask-less day, ya dig?

~Matthew