I am as guilty as anybody else at neglecting my own attempt to improve myself with Time Management by not Multitasking. Couple weeks ago, I had a social event to attend at 5:00, needed to run errands from 3:00 to about 4:30 so my plan was start preparing an appetizer to take to the event at 1:00. Made a killer Chipped Cream Beef Dip, let me know if you want the recipe. I had all the ingredients on the counter ready and the phone rings, it’s a possible client and asked if I had time to talk. What am I going to tell them? No, did I talk, yes for more than an hour. While talking to him I am knocking out the dip, muting the call so he wasn’t distracted by hearing my KitchenAid mixer and all the noise of preparing the appetizer. Yep, guilty as charged!
We mostly all face dilemmas due to deadlines, we need to have accomplished or be someplace at a certain time. Thanks to today’s communications we are accessible almost 24/7. The person attempting to contact us doesn’t know what is happening at that moment so yes, we add another layer to our nutty life not giving our sole attention to one thing at a time. We think we are good, trying to fake but we aren’t! That Friday afternoon I should have been at my desk taking notes of our conversation, following up with an email highlighting important points from the discussion, did I? Hell no I had a party to go to, need to have our priorities!
Let me introduce you to Cluster Tasking, which I should have done Friday afternoon. I do practice this when writing and building presentations, well at least I try to. I block out a certain amount of time normally 30 to 60 minutes which involves putting my phone on mute and placing it in another room and putting my computer on “Do Not Disturb” mode. Doing this I should be able to give 100% of my attention to what I am doing. Remember in an earlier article I talked about 40% drop in productivity when multitasking and 17% dumber? I can’t afford that! By Cluster Tasking for one hour I have increased my productivity equal to 1 hour and 24 minutes. If you do this 4 times a day you have added more than 96 minutes to your day! Think about it 96 minutes a day for either production or attending a party! Please remember my slogan, “Don’t work harder work smarter”!
Dick Betts
National Director of Seminars
New Home Co-Broker Academy
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717-860-3107
