You are not multi-tasking, you are cross-tasking (and it’s wrong)

photo credit: mroach

Anybody who tells you that they are multi-tasking is lying to you. And if you think you are multi-tasking, you’re lying to yourself too. You are not multi-tasking, you are cross-tasking (and it’s wrong). And I’m here to tell you why. A couple of nights ago, I was staying late at my office at The Network Hub and I had to submit two academic abstracts before midnight. Normally, like any other Multi-tasker Addict I would jump back and forth or other tasks.

This back-and-forth, come-and-go, activity has done for me but distract me and slow me down. And I’m shifting my own behaviour and training myself to just stay focused. This is very, very hard. Despite the fact that I have a PhD, I’ve always been a hummingbird at heart. My attention spans are very short. But I’m working to my strengths and you could too.

You’ll see, when you think that I am publishing a lot of tweets, it’s in fact (most likely), a number of tweets I’ve already pre-scheduled to go live. When you see me retweet stuff from people, it’s me concentrated on the task of sharing interesting stuff to my readers while I commute on the bus.

I have been working the discipline of just focusing on ONE task at hand, instead of cross-tasking. Just in the same way Heisenberg’s Principle applies and two bodies can’t occupy the same space at the same time, your brain can’t really be in two places at the same time either.

My friend Pete Quily is an ADHD Coach (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) and he has suggested through all the years he’s known me (we became friends as he is also a blogger and I’m the organizer of the Vancouver Blogger Meetup and we see each other at events) that I need to focus on one task at hand. And it’s working.

For example, while I knew in my head that I had to reply to about 6 emails, I decided to just sit down and go through and finish this blog post Even if that means that I have to write down on my notebook “do not forget to respond to X email”, writing the task down leaves my brain space clear from clutter and allows me to focus on the task at hand.

And no, I don’t read self-help books, so this tip did not come from Getting Things Done or any of those books. I eschew those books. I write about my experiences and share productivity tips primarily because that’s how I make MY life work the way it does. And I think these productivity tips might be of use to you too.