Do Less, Accomplish More
I’ve got over 300 resumes in my inbox at this very moment. We are looking to hire a marketing assistant to help at the Wealth Authority headquarters in Orlando.
For the last few days I’ve been sifting through all of the applications and picking out my favorites. My stack of people who I plan to call for a phone interview is very small thus far. Half the time I’m either laughing or shaking my head at the things people put on their resumes.
My favorite ridiculous statement that people list on their resumes is people skills. What does that even mean? You can hold a conversation with other human beings? You can be nice to customers? Congratulations, you’re a genius.
One resume listed under special skills the ability to work a fax and copy machine. Water came out of my nose on that one I laughed so hard. Yea like that will be the skill that gets you hired.
I’ve also seen quite a few people list multi-tasking as a skill on their resume. Those applications go straight into the garbage.
Multi-tasking has become kind of a buzz word in office occupations. Managers think that if they can hire people who multi-task well then they can hire fewer people and still get the same amount of output. Their wrong.
According to researchers at Stanford University, workers who multi-task and do several duties at once are actually less productive in the office. Plus it makes us work less efficiently and open to making mistakes. A bad combination.
I don’t know what you look for in a new hire, but I want someone who is productive, efficient and isn’t prone to making mistakes.
The researchers found that people who multi-task lose a significant amount of time when they switch between tasks. Meaning if you are writing up a report and the phone rings you lose time when you shift your focus from the report to the person on the phone and then again when you shift your attention back to the report you were working on.
Our brains can’t process more than one strain of information at a time. So when a new task pops up we have to stop our current line of interpreting, turn our brains off from that first task and focus on the new information entering our brain.
Think about the last time you read a book or article. You are engaged with the information on the page. Now if the phone rings or someone calls out to you, you stop reading to focus on them. When you finally go back to reading you probably start by re-reading the last few lines to remind yourself of what was going on when you left off. Effectively, losing some time.
Researchers also found that the more complex the task was, the longer it took to fully switch and concentrate on it. So if you are working on adding up costs on a spreadsheet and switch to reading your email, it will take longer to switch back to the math problem because it requires more brain power.
I have found this to be true in my own work. When I have multiple web pages open and I’m trying to finish up a letter that needs to go out soon all while glancing at each new email that comes in I find that I get a lot less done and often it’s filled with mistakes. I am wasting time trying to get multiple things done at the same time. In reality it takes me longer to get them all done.
I’ve found it best to concentrate on a single task at a time. If I’m working on writing a lift letter, I don’t have my email open or answer texts that come in. I finish the task completely then shift my focus to the next thing I need to do.
If a project is big and I can’t spend all day completing it, then I give myself a time limit rather than switching back and forth between it and the other tasks I need to get done. Usually I give myself a half hour or so for each project without interruption. If I have another pressing matter that needs my attention I’ll give it my full attention afterwards. Then I can come back to my original task or move on to something else.
I also find it helpful to limit how many times a day I check email. I used to keep my inbox open all day. I would read emails as they came in, no matter what else I was doing. But I realized I was getting distracted easier. If an email came in that required action on my part, I would stop what I was working on to take care of it. Then I’d come back to my earlier task, all the while accomplishing very little.
Now I check my email three to four times a day, instead of throughout the entire day. I usually check it first thing in the morning, then again at 11 a.m. (about an hour before I break for lunch), and again after lunch and conclude my day with clearing out my inbox. I don’t lose any productivity this way and everything still gets done that is important.
I encourage you to try this method to see for yourself if it increases the amount of work you get done each day.
Are you at work right now? Then try it out right now. Shut down your email and any other unrelated pages on your computer. Put all your focus on the task at hand. If you must put a timer to go off 30 minutes from now. See if you don’t get more done and perform better.
I’d be interested to hear from you after you attempt to stop multi-tasking. Drop me a line to tell me about your experience. I’ll bet you notice a difference and your boss does too!
Good luck!
Ethan Warrick
