Multitasking – blessing or curse?
What’s claimed to be most womens’ strength is also one of our major weaknesses: multitasking.
Not only do we waste a lot of energy, we also miss out on opportunities to professionally position ourselves better and improve our career, like our male colleagues. Let’s say, if only we fill up the water in the coffee machine – (also) use our energy and focus for the unimportant, then unfortunately this does not go unnoticed to our disadvantage.
The perfect world in which we work on a task without interruptions does not exist. We are usually interrupted several times by calls or meetings from customers or colleagues. In order to be more successful and, most importantly, more satisfied, we should try to create this world for ourselves and leave out the unimportant as much as possible!
First of all: Our brains, whether male or female, are not able of multitasking anyway. The brain changes sequentially between the different tasks at lightning speed – lightning fast means above all that a lot of energy is burned.
The next time you walk past the coffee machine and the water level indicator flashes – no need that you refill it right away – use your energy for the more important things first.
The dissatisfying feeling of not having done anything after a long day arises when we have done a little bit of everything but nothing properly. Feeling more satisfied at the end of a work day makes it pay off twice, to focus on the important things!
“When I go, I go. When I eat, I eat. When I sleep, I sleep.” From Zen Buddhism.
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Because readers are leaders*, here come some links and books that can help you better understand the value of focused work:
- A woman’s greatest enemy; The Guardian
- Eryn Falconer: Hot to get Sh*t done
- Kate Northrup: Do less
- Steven Covey: the seven habits of highly effective People (my all-time favorite focus book!)
The original version of this article was published in German.
