Multitasking - Hurting or Helping?

We have all been told that to be more efficient with our time, we must multitask to get as much done in as little time as possible. But is this really true? It seems to be so on the surface but when you actually think about what it takes mentally to do more than one thing at a time, is it worth the lack of concentration? Some people have enough difficulty focusing on one thing at a time, can multitasking really be that good?

For a home based business owner the answer to this question is vital to the success of your business as well as many other areas of your life. Most people love the idea of being their own boss and setting their own schedule but very few people can actually be productive in this environment.

Let’s break this down a little bit.

On one hand, multitasking can help you get as much as possible into a short period of time. If you can respond to your emails while listening to the new training CD in the background it does seem to be more efficient.

But on the other hand, where was your concentration really focused? The emails or the training CD? The truth is, NEITHER. All you have really accomplished is to spread your concentration so thin that you aren’t really focusing on either task.

Not only can multitasking actually have the opposite of it’s intended purpose, it can actually make you dumber! Really! It’s true! A recent study at The British Institute of Psychiatry showed that checking your email while performing another creative task decreases your IQ in the moment 10 points. That is the equivalent of not sleeping for 36 hours—more than twice the impact of smoking marijuana.

It can take the average person about 20 minutes to get back into a focused state of concentration after their mind has gone off on a tangent with a trail of other random thoughts. This is definitely a bad thing for your business and probably explains why most network marketers (beginners and old-timers alike) spend most of their “work time” shuffling papers around their desks, sharpening pencils and sending jokes, pictures and chain letters to all their friends and family.

So how can a person go from having a very structured day at their J.O.B. to scheduling their day effectively and completing the tasks that actually help them make money?

The solution is simple. Group your tasks together and work in focused blocks of uninterrupted time, usually a minimum of 2 hours.

It is critical to focus on doing only one thing at a time in these blocks of concentration. Your tasks should be prioritized and completed during these segments of focused work. Now, for some, this may seem like common sense. But if that were really the case, you should have figured out for yourself that multitasking is hurting your business rather than helping it.

What you do during those focused blocks of uninterrupted time is a topic for another article but to answer the question: Is Multitasking Wasting Your Time? The answer is a resounding YES!