Read This If You Do One Thing At A Time
Those of you who have been readers for the past couple years know my feelings about "multi-tasking."
There is plenty of evidence that doing multiple things at once means you don't do any of them well. That's fine if the tasks are small and the consequences of failure are low-risk.
You might not need to hit 6-Sigma level industry standards if you're just folding pizza boxes or sealing envelopes.
For everything else, though, it's usually worth it to just focus on one thing at a time.
But that's not good enough!
I want to do all the things!
I want to be productive while I sleep!
Me too.
So, how do we do multiple things at once, without actually doing multiple things at once?
Okay, brace yourselves for this super boring, unsexy, nerd answer:
Do stuff that compounds or does double-duty for you.
Yep.
Building tools and systems are one way to achieve this.
They allow us to apply the same effort and get way better leverage.
The bicycle is a perfect example. A bicycle might take days or weeks to make--or it might take a chunk of cash to buy--but once you've got one, you can move literally 3 - 10 times faster than pedestrians.
Same effort. Way better output.
Make your work do double-duty.
The next level is thinking about how you can then turn that same energy you're putting into the bicycle into something else that's useful to you, like exercise, or eliminating your carbon emissions.
Now you're not only going faster, but you're increasing your heart rate and burning carbohydrates, not hydrocarbons! Cool!
- If you're a marketer, this might mean taking that YouTube interview you did and turning it into a podcast or quick checklist for your audience.
- If you're a teacher, this might mean using your garden to teach biology, chemistry, and cooking skills in the same lesson.
- If you're a software engineer, this might mean using code you've already built and either refactoring it to use less CPU or just updating some parameters to make it solve a new problem.
Multi-tasking is out.
Single-tasking on work that does double-duty is in!
If you keep chasing more work I promise that's what you'll get.
But if you look for more ways to put the wind at your back you'll get more done and you'll still have time left over.
Prefer to work on things that provide multiple benefits.
2 Minute Action:
Check-in with your partner, co-founder, teammate, or your own personal to-do list.
Look at all the work you're doing and call out some areas of focus (marketing, operations, finance).
Create a Venn diagram, triangle, or whatever you need to create to visualize the overlap between those areas of focus.
You might not magically come up with ideas immediately and that's okay, but put a post-it note or reminder of this diagram somewhere you'll see it.
I've found that when the question keeps knocking on my door, I start to see answers in my day-to-day that I might not have seen before.
Multitasking Is Bad, Here’s How You Should Do It
I’ve heard a lot of people say that they are good at multitasking.In fact, some people insist on hiring employees based on this trait.Let’s be really clear about what multitasking means:Multitasking does NOT mean doing two things at once.Multitasking DOES mean managing multiple projects.Multitasking DOES NOT mean juggling rubber balls, sending an email, pouring an espresso shot, washing the car, and talking on the phone at the same time.
We have really clear data that show a huge reduction in work quality when you take on multiple tasks at the same time.
Multitasking DOES mean negotiating deadlines, following up with prospects, and getting new leads in the same work day .
So we’re talking about the task-level and the project-level.
Task-level multitasking is a disaster.You will fail.Project-level multitasking is a requisite skill for any valuable job.
2 Minute Action
Take 2 minutes to map out your day.Look at your tasks and categorize them by project.Multiple projects, deadlines, budgets?No problem.But if the only time you have to send emails is while you’re peeing . . . you may want to look more deeply at your workload distribution.
The Little Known Reason There Isn’t A Famous “One Man Band”: And How It Can Teach You To Dial Up Your Output
What was the last one man band you heard of?How famous were they?Did they ever get a record deal?
Did they “make it,” by their definition?
Chances are you know about one or two people who play at local venues or cafes and consider themselves a “one man band,” playing drums, cymbals, harmonica, and guitar.
Maybe it doesn’t sound like all that much at first, but consider this:
This is the same person who books the gig, sets up the electronics, and pays taxes on earnings. This is the same person who has to write songs or transpose others into their unique format. This is the same person who has to respond to fan emails, create album art, and ship cd’s to customers. This is the same person fielding complaints and dealing with shipping errors, booking cancellations, and venues not paying on time.You see my point?Define success however you’d like, but I’d bet you any of these people wouldn’t say “no” to large scale popularity. What I mean is: this person wants person wants more people to hear and appreciate the musical output. Yet, by doing all of this alone, growth and impact are limited.
2 Minute Action:
This is the part where the excuses appear (when it gets hard).“Well, Chris, I don’t have the resources to pay for someone to help me.”What if it was your mom?What if it was your brother?What if it was your biggest fan, who believes in you?What if it was a music performance student who needs internship credits?Getting around the excuse is called “making it happen,” and that’s totally up to you. Today, it will only take you about 2 minutes to think of an area where you’re holding yourself back. How much of the work are you doing?What could you offload?Pick one person who might be interested or available in helping (in some very small and specific way—at first).Reach out. The height of the ceiling is more in your control than you think.