Multitasking and context switching are the Energy hogging and Focus Stealing Monsters that must be tamed.
Multitasking used to be the skill that was highly valuable, especially if you worked in the office environments.
In the Job interviews your possible future boss might have asked, if you are good at Multitasking? This was obvious because the jobs we have often require that we juggle many balls at once.
We used to think, and probably many still do, that doing many things at once is a valuable skill to have. If you are one of them, this article will be a perfect read for you. 😉
The second thing that I want to highlight with this short and quick read is the importance of Energy and Focus. These two elements go hand in hand with this idea about Multitasking.
Back in the days, or not so long ago to be honest, we used to be obsessed about Time Management. In this article I have few other more important elements for you to manage though.
First how can we manage something so finite as Time. Time is a fixed measure as we all have the same 24h of it every single day.
What can be managed though are your Energy and Focus (Direction of that Energy).
Instead of talking about time management, I always rather talk about something that has more fluidity and can be managed, such as your physical, mental, and emotional Energy and your Focus.
So, let’s talk about this idea of Multitasking or for the purpose of this article we change it now to “Context Switching “.
The Raw numbers will not lie (Often at least…).
I first heard about this idea of Context switching from a Performance and Mindset expert, Todd Herman.
His Presentation about the Raw loss of our time, Energy and Focus to Context Switching was quite eye opening to say the least.
You can listen to one of his interviews for Forbes magazine here.
In a nutshell, we lose 17-20% of our productive Energy & Focus every time we add another simultaneous task on to our Plate!
When you are working on one single project or task at hand you obviously have no loss to Context Switching.
Now then, when we add another task, let’s say you are having multiple tabs open in a web browser with pop ups, messages, and other digital distractions.
You are losing around 20% of your highly valuable productive Energy.
So, your available Focus for two simultaneous tasks is 40%, NOT 50% each! The effects of Context Switching multiply by every added element and task.
When you add a third variable, say you get a phone call or someone walks into your office wanting to steal your time from you, you are left with 20% for each of the three tasks.
Energy Savers and Focus enhancers
What to do about it then?
As said, Our Energy is the raw material of everything we do in Life. And where we direct that attention is the difference maker that moves the needle forward, or Not.
Focus is the skillset and the question that will be asked in the work interviews of today. Our ability to Focus the available energy to the most important tasks at hand and Say No to distractions is apparent to our personal and professional growth.
When it comes to Energy, one of the simple ideas is to Plug your current Energy Leaks. (I recorded a quick 77 second video about this here).
Apart from Digital distractions mentioned earlier, the spaces and places we put ourselves into, as well as the people we interact with have possibly the biggest effects onto this loss (or gain) of Energy.
Make sure you surround yourself with the highest quality environments and people possible!
One of the best ways to train Focus that I have found out is to do the opposite of intense Focus. When we periodically, say every 40min-50min open our Focus and let our eyes go wide, we give our mind its desperately needed rest.
Doing this for 2-3min by watching out of the window to the horizon will recharge our attention and allow a higher quality productivity in return.
In Short
Train your brain and custom your body to move throughout the day to deepen your Attention and increase your Energy.
With a little bit of extra Charge and heightened Focus we can move mountains. 😉
