How often have you faced a situation where you are trying to analyse a giant Excel spreadsheet while simultaneously thinking of how to deal with a client chasing updates on the work that you had promised you would deliver on the day? Or are you on a call with a team member trying to figure out how to take a particular project forward while also having to draft an email for a marketing campaign? Or, let’s say you are thinking about how to code a specific piece of functionality onto your mobile app while also communicating with your lawyer, who has told you that there’s a court hearing coming up soon on litigation that you are party to?
You may put yourself in literally any other similar scenario in which you have to deal with two or three or several different tasks simultaneously. And then ask yourself, at any given time, can you think of more than one of them?
If, upon deep reflection, your answer to the question is No, don’t fret about your lack of multi-tasking abilities. As science says, humans multitask; therefore, the biggest myth about multitasking is that there are people who can be capable of it! Okay, maybe some people may be able to do that, but that number sadly is a pathetic 2%. And there is no way the remaining 98% can try to train their brain to fit into that 2%.
Now, if you have made peace with the fact that there’s nothing wrong with you if you CAN’T handle multiple tasks, here is where we can tell you how you CAN!
But no, not at the SAME time. If you try to do everything at the same time, you’ll end up doing nothing. So, what you need to do is –
Prioritize
Work well begun is half done, goes an old saying. And the trick to starting the work well is effective planning. No matter how urgent the work deadlines are, it would still make sense to take some time out to prioritize your tasks. Such prioritizing can be done based on:
- Urgency of each task
- Dependency of other tasks on the task whose priority you are trying to figure out
- Potential rewards associated with completing each task
You may use a simple spreadsheet or could choose to follow more sophisticated methods such as the Critical Path Method (if you are managing a project that comprises multiple tasks).
Automate
Some tasks rely on your domain knowledge and sense of discretion, and then there are those mundane tasks (such as, say, reconciliation of accounting entries). You absolutely cannot automate anything about the former; how well you do, is what will build your brand value.
But the latter kind of tasks are ones you can easily automate using technology. Suppose you invest in technology to automate repetitive and monotonous tasks that consume a few hours of your time every day (and you have to keep one eye on them throughout the day). In that case, you can boost your productivity significantly by making a one-time investment in getting a bespoke automation tool developed to handle such tasks.
Delegate
If you are running a boutique software services outfit, should you also talk to clients to get your payments done on time? Think about all such tasks that do not rely on your core expertise for their execution and could be done by someone lesser skilled (but skilled in executing those tasks flawlessly).
Why won’t you want to hire someone like that to free up your time to focus on doing the things that you are best at and which actually earn you revenue (and most probably, are the things that you genuinely love doing)?
These are merely three things that would seem almost natural to you. And they will certainly boost your work output tremendously, whether you are a senior manager of a specific functional area within an organization or an entrepreneur. However, planning and prioritizing itself requires time. Automation and delegation require monetary investment (procuring necessary technology for automation and hiring the right staff for work delegation).
Now, here is where the services of a virtual office provider could come to your rescue. With us, you can hire virtual assistants or receptionists who can help you manage your workload, keeping you informed about the tasks you have to work on and various upcoming deadlines. Moreover, you can have them handle calls (or at least filter out the ones you absolutely must attend to) and handle receipt and delivery of postal mail. You can recruit the basis of their service your needs, which means you can optimize your expenses. And that can give you more free time to think about what tasks you should automate and how.
Indeed, all of that will bring down the stress you’ve been experiencing. And then, you can, effectively, multi-task even if you’re part of the (not unlucky) 98%.