While on a conference call with the executive committee of a non-profit board on which he sits, consultant Peter Bregman decided to send an e-mail to a client. With his focus half on the call and half on the e-mail, it took three tries to get it right. And when he finally refocused on the call, he realized he had missed a question the board chairman had directed at him. Such are the results of trying to do two things at once. A chastened Mr. Bregman decided to embark on a one-week experiment in which he would avoid multitasking, focusing solely on the task at hand. On Harvard Business School blogs, he shared his results, and some tips on joining him in single tasking:
Results
Delight: He found it delightful to focus more intently on whatever he was doing, most notably when he was with his children, cell phone off and more deeply engaged. “Don’t laugh, but I actually – for the first time in a while – noticed the beauty of leaves blowing in the wind,” he writes.
Enhanced productivity: He made significant progress on some challenging projects that require thought and persistence – the kind of tasks he often distracts himself from when the work becomes hard. In this case, he stayed with it, and experienced a number of breakthroughs.
Reduced stress: His stress dropped markedly. “It was a relief to do only one thing at a time. I felt liberated from the strain of keeping so many balls in the air at each moment. It felt reassuring to finish one thing before going to the next,” he says.
More protective of time: He lost all patience for things that were not a good use of his time, and resisted them, like hour-long meetings and meandering, pointless conversations. He became focused on getting things done.
More patience for useful things: On the other hand, he had more patience for things that were useful and enjoyable. He could listen to his wife without feeling in a rush to do something else, or stay with moments when he was brainstorming ideas, instead of flitting to something else.
No downside: He lost nothing by not multitasking. No project was unfinished and nobody was frustrated that he didn’t return a call or an e-mail as soon as he received it.
Tips
Turn off interruptions: To avoid the temptation to multitask, turn off interruptions. Disconnect your computer from your wireless connection when working on other things, and leave your phone in the trunk of your car at times.
Use loss of patience to advantage: Create seemingly unrealistically short deadlines. Cut meetings in half. Give yourself a third of the time you seem to need for a task. You may surprise yourself with how quickly things will move in a single-focus world, and how stress-free it will seem, even with tough deadlines.
Management
Five elements of the modern business plan
Business plans for new enterprises are often storehouses of bafflegab. Business adviser Seth Godin wishes they were more useful, and, in that, vein, he suggests they have five sections:
Truth: This section describes the world as it truly is – the market you are entering, the needs that already exist, the competitors, technology standards, and the way others have succeeded and failed in the past. The more specific, the better. Spreadsheets and other analysis are welcome. “This section isn’t partisan, it takes no positions, it just states how things are,” he stresses on Seth’s Blog.
Assertions: Now you can describe how you are going to change things. You will do X, and Y will happen. The only reason to launch a business plan is to change things, and here you describe that change.
Alternatives: Since many of your assertions inevitably won’t pan out, indicate what you’ll do when that happens. How flexible is your team and your plan?
