|
Opportunities
Avoid quality pitfalls while multitasking
In an age where we face a time crunch everyday and ‘so much to do and so little time’ is a common complaint, multitasking is one option to get everything done. But multitasking may not actually save you time or necessarily make you more efficient.
It is a misconception that more can be done this way because there is certainly loss of efficiency when you switch between tasks.
Multitasking may be easy when you want to club two or three simple tasks together like checking your mail while answering the phone but can you manage to work on your sales report while working on a proposal for a client?
Maybe no. You see the ability to multitask depends on the tasks you want to club together.
If you think making a to-do list and planning to do them at one go can save you time, then think again because the quality of your work is definitely bound to suffer. Multitasking usually requires some compromise on quality.
When you do one thing at a time, you are able to give your full attention to it and obviously the quality of your work output is better. But if you were to do two different tasks together which are equally significant the quality could decrease even if your efficiency improves.
For instance if you are briefing your assistant on the new project and making that agenda for the regional sales meeting next week at the same time, you are no doubt saving on time.
But ask yourself if the quality of your work is satisfactory, you could have left out some important points in the agenda and your assistant could come up for further clarifications because he did not grasp all the points in your brief.
If you think you can compromise on the quality and time is the essence in your work then multitask by all means, but remember you may have to improve on the same tasks again because you may not get it right the first time round. This is a fallout of multitasking.
The need to do different tasks at one time depends on the kind of work one is doing. For instance a factory manager needs to keep an eye on the production line, the output of workers and also oversee that supply orders are met and there is enough production to meet these orders. Although he can delegate some of these tasks, he still needs to multitask.
Even if you are not a supervisor, a project manager or a restaurant manager where multitasking is warranted, there may be times when you need to do two or more tasks at one time to meet deadlines. In such times your sense of judgement and ability to prioritise comes into play, suppose you need to send that sales report by evening and still have not got to it, probably you will have to work on it while having your lunch.
Another instance, you need to clear your mailbox but at the same time you need to send some details to a client urgently, then you obviously need to send the details to the client first.
Sometimes you may not be sure whether a task is urgent or not-urgent and how to prioritise, then ask yourself whether it needs to be done now or can be postponed.
When multitasking undertake tasks that you can do together and efficiently as well. The decision to club tasks together also depends on how important they are and their urgency.
At times you will have to get cracking on an important job while leaving all the non-important tasks aside. So you will have to know what is important and what is not.
Smart multitasking involves combining an important and non-important task together because doing two important tasks together will not let you give them the full concentration they deserve. Rather you can do some online shopping for some CDs (non-important) and work on that sales report (important). The former requires little thought and effort compared to the latter and you can get two things done at the same time.
To be efficient at multitasking you need to know how to combine tasks, prioritise and do things without compromising on quality.
Then you will become adept at doing things on time, meet deadlines and your boss would obviously turn to you when multiple things need to be done urgently. Intelligent multitasking is a smart way to move ahead in your career.
HEMA.G
faqs@cnkonline.com
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Opportunities
|
