Speaker 1: Good morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to stop multitasking, well mostly. One of
Speaker 1: the most common questions I get asked that talks is
Speaker 1: what I think about multitasking. My answer is that it depends.
Speaker 1: Most of us understand multitasking is doing two or more
Speaker 1: things at once. By that definition, it's both innocuous and inevitable.
Speaker 1: My guess is that you're doing something else while listening
Speaker 1: to this podcast, driving, making your coffee, getting dressed, exercising,
Speaker 1: waiting for the bus, and that's fine. You're also multitasking
Speaker 1: if you exercise with a friend, make dinner with your spouse,
Speaker 1: talk with your kids while driving. All of these are
Speaker 1: great ways to spend time, no complaints from me. There
Speaker 1: where we get in trouble with multitasking is when we're
Speaker 1: doing two things that require the same kind of attention
Speaker 1: at the same time. You know what I mean, checking
Speaker 1: your texts while someone is trying to talk with you,
Speaker 1: answering emails while you're on a conference call, writing a report,
Speaker 1: while monitoring Slack or instant messages. Look, I know it's tempting.
Speaker 1: We all have so much to do. Avoiding email entirely
Speaker 1: during an hour long conference call can seem like a
Speaker 1: huge waste of time, And yet we're never really doing
Speaker 1: two things like answering email and listening to a call
Speaker 1: at once. We're taggling our attention back and forth between
Speaker 1: the two. We're losing time on every switch, so it's inefficient,
Speaker 1: and the danger is that we're not paying attention to
Speaker 1: the right thing at the right time. I know this
Speaker 1: has happened to me. I will admit that sometimes if
Speaker 1: I'm on a call and it's running along, I will
Speaker 1: look at my inbox. Inevitably I miss the question. Then
Speaker 1: the person is saying, and what do you think about that, Laura,
Speaker 1: and I either have to embarrass myself by asking the
Speaker 1: person to repeat the question, or I flubbed through an
Speaker 1: answer that has nothing to do with the matter at hand.
Speaker 1: For stuff like the US, it's really hard to rely
Speaker 1: on willpower. I mean, your inboxes right there. Instead, I
Speaker 1: think the best answer is to be very careful about
Speaker 1: scheduling yourself into stuff that will make multitasking tempting. In
Speaker 1: other words, if you know you're going to be able
Speaker 1: to check email while you're on a call, ask if
Speaker 1: you really need to be on that call. Maybe the
Speaker 1: agenda is too vague, maybe there are too many people.
Speaker 1: Maybe you can send around a quick email instead. You
Speaker 1: might also change the format. I know I'm doing a
Speaker 1: lot more video conferences these days because everyone pays more
Speaker 1: attention when they can see each other's faces, and if
Speaker 1: you think about it, in our distracted world, attention really
Speaker 1: is the ultimate sign of respect. So challenge yourself today
Speaker 1: to pay full attention to whatever you've chosen to do.
Speaker 1: See if you can convert some calls to video chats,
Speaker 1: or to keep your phone in a desk during a meeting.
Speaker 1: I promise you'll feel more engaged, which actually makes work
Speaker 1: feel more pleasant. In the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening, and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod
Speaker 1: that's B the number four, then Breakfast p O D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: podcast at iHeart media dot com That Before Breakfast is
Speaker 1: spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much. Should
Speaker 1: I look forward to staying in touch