Of all the things that one is taught in school and in college come to that matter, time management is rarely one of them. This is a real shame as in a plugged in, always on, stream everything do it now world mastering the art of time management is harder than ever as now not only are we expected to get everything done but we are also expected to get several things done at once by mastering another buzz word concept; multitasking.
There have been 1001 articles written about strategies for time management in the 21st century world and many of them offer some excellent tips. Often however they do skip over one unfortunate truth; multitasking is bad. Even for a younger person, one who has now grown up with one eye on the television, one on the computer and a hand on their cellphone. Spend a little time around a teenager right now and you may marvel at how they seemingly manage to be on Facebook, sending a text message from their cell and watching TV all at the same time. Look a little harder though and you will realize that they doing a number of things at the same time but they are not actually doing them very well.
When you think you are multitasking what you are really doing is simply switching tasks quickly, not paying enough attention to any of them. The human brain simply has a finite number of things it can handle at once and even fewer that it can truly engage with at any given time however intelligent a person is.
Multitasking Actually Slows You Down
We multitask to save time but that is rarely the case with anything. How much attention can you really pay to that conference call when you are also trying to catch up with the morning’s emails at the same time. Not as much as you should which may come back to haunt you later in the day when you realize your inattention means you are missing information you needed to complete another task. Experts say that multitasking can actually decrease productivity by up to 40% and the potential for mistakes rises by about the same amount as well. Therefore even if you believe you are saving time on a few tasks that is not the case as it will take even more time to go back and correct your mistakes.
Multitasking Kills Your Creativity
If you are attempting to do too many things at once you will be using up a great deal of your brain’s “working memory,” or in layman’s terms, its temporary “storage” capability. When all of that working memory is occupied it can limit the ability to think creatively. This means that those ‘a ha’ moments that can produce such amazing results are simply not going to happen.
So What Does Work?
Rather than trying to multitask your way through the day focus instead on creating a workable plan and that is where all of those wonderful previously mentioned articles come in. Learning to prioritize properly and how to tame the procrastination habit will be far more effective.
Finally , one very significant factor when it comes to efficient time management is one that many people rarely actually take into consideration; the work they are actually doing. If the work you are engaged in does not interest you it become monotonous and exhausting. If you happen to be doing something that suits your interests and your skill sets you are naturally become more efficient and more engaged. This may mean that before you begin trying to change your time management habits you may have to consider changing your career path first.
