Multi-tasking For Time Management

Multi-tasking is art and should not be indulged in with out keeping track of all of them. Else it could lead to disasters.

Let's take an example. You want to iron your shirt and it takes a couple of minutes for my electric iron to heat up. At the same time you want a cup of coffee so while the iron is heating up, you might as well put the coffee maker on the stove. You also need to make some toast for breakfast and after popping two slices of bread into the toaster; you can go back to the ironing.

After ironing one shirt perhaps, you 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.

Let's us now check out a couple of things that you can multi-task at office. 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.

But of course, it is all a matter of common sense when it comes to choosing which two things that you can multi-task on. 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. I mean a lunch 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.

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!