A few weeks back I was invited to attend a mini-workshop presented by a client. She was coaching a group of professionals at a large corporate firm on how to use NLP at work to achieve better results. I wanted to get a better understanding of what she does and this was the perfect opportunity to do so. Plus,  I would get to meet her face to face. She lives over 150 Kilometres away and all of our communication takes place via email and phone.

I got many useful gems out of the workshop, mainly about communicating to get what you want. But there was one thing in particular that really stuck with me. It is something that would normally be as foreign to me as speaking Japanese and will no doubt resonate with many of you.

Having made a career as a Personal Assistant for many years (and now a business owner) I’ve been programmed to do many tasks at once and wear a multitude hats. In today’s modern world it’s practically a necessity to multi-task as we move at speed to accomplish everything on our task lists. Many times I’ve marvelled in frustration at the local barista wondering why (oh why, oh why) he finds it impossible to hold a conversation and sprinkle cocoa on my tall skinny cappuccino at the same time? Does it really take that much brainpower to do two things at once?! But anyway, I’m not going to dwell on that too much.

Back at the workshop and this particularly shiny gem. My client announced to her captive audience that in order to increase productivity and save time we should not multi-task. Yep, you heard right: Do not multi-task. I struggled with this concept initially as I tried to grasp exactly what she was saying. I had been very proud of my aptitude to multi-task. I was even prone to bragging about it occasionally. Once it sank in it was like an epiphany. Not only was I being given permission to slow down and do one…thing…at…a…time, but I had an excellent reason for doing so: Give each task 100% of your focus and you will do it better, plus it will save time in the long run. Simple.

Ok, let’s be honest. How many times have you been on a conference call and flicked through emails? Me too! I used to think it was productive.  However, you can’t concentrate fully on more than one task, so in the end you have to go back over what you’ve discussed rather than taking it in the first time which makes no sense at all.

I’ve now adopted this new approach (ok it’s not strictly new, but it is to me).  It is a really smart way of working and it’s increased my productivity. Not only that, it feels like the natural way to work effectively. So, what do you think? If you are a habitual multi-tasker perhaps you should try it out. I would love to hear if it works for you too.