If you are a fan of multi-tasking, or if you label yourself as a multi-tasker, then this piece of writing might upset you. Yes, there are moments when the need for multi-tasking is paramount. But when things really matter, just like in business, you might want to concentrate on one task at a time.
It’s a fact that a successful entrepreneur doesn’t multi-task.
So what is “multi-tasking”? Simply put, it is doing a number of tasks simultaneously at a given time. This is usually done so that plenty of work can be done over a short amount of time.
Here’s an example of multitasking. While you’re on your computer writing an e-mail, you could be taking a phone call with your headset, sipping coffee, and at the same time signaling a visitor to take a seat. That’s a lot of tasks done in one time!
Multi-tasking is okay, if the activities that you are taking care of are fairly simple and somewhat routine in nature. In technical terms, this is called “continuous partial attention” where one does a number of things at a time and that these tasks are not studied in depth. And this is rarely the case for a successful entrepreneur.
One of the things that a serious entrepreneur needs is concentration, especially if your business is one that calls for face-to-face or personal interaction with customers. No customer would be thrilled if you would be talking to them, while at the same time, talking to another customer on your phone while emailing another on your computer. No one will ever accuse you of being a competent entrepreneur if you’re like this, much less a serious entrepreneur.
The Costs in Switching Tasks
The effect on the human brain of multi-tasking and its effects on productivity have long since been studied by experimental psychologists. Studies have shown that there is a “switching” cost of four minutes to get back to maximum productivity in between switching tasks. Get back to the first example. It will take you approximately sixteen minutes to complete a cycle of multi-tasking with maximum productivity. For a serious entrepreneur, those sixteen minutes is too much to waste.
Given such a piece of information, would you still opt to multi-task? True, a serious entrepreneur like you has a lot of things on your plate. You sometimes wish you have more than 24 hours in a day.
What any successful entrepreneur should do, however, is finish one task at a time. On the average, you may have the same result as compared to doing portions of each task. The benefit comes from the non-quantifiable things that you get out of completing tasks one at a time. You get less stressed simply because you’ll have one frame of thought at a time. As a result, as you shred off tasks one by one, you have less and less things to think about. And this, perhaps, is the secret of success for any serious entrepreneur!