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Edmonton Business Coach | Multitasking Misconceptions
The idea behind multitasking says Edmonton business coach, is that the more tasks someone can take on at the same time, the faster they can accomplish those tasks. Unfortunately this doesnít actually work in practice, despite the fact that many businesses have adopted this model as a way of running their business. Despite the fact that many people think it makes them more productive, multitasking actually means that several things are being worked on poorly. Not only is multitasking ineffective in increasing productivity, but it actually significantly reduces productivity and reduces the ability to execute those tasks. Simply it makes you slower and less effective. But so many businesses have bought in to this idea that multitasking is the way to run if youíre busy, that in order to increase productivity, business owners have to change the way they think.
Rather than trying to encourage people to work on many tasks at the same time, the real key of unlocking productivity in the business is to help people get into their peak productivity zone. It takes the average brain about 23 minutes of working on the same task to reach its intellectual capacity multitasking ensures that this peak productivity zone is never reached, because people are switching their focus to often. But those people who can work on a task completely uninterrupted can reach that peak productivity and be able to work at their most effective. Business owners need to create an environment where everyone including themselves can work uninterrupted for certain blocks of time.
Creating these blocks of time can be fairly easy, the hard part says Edmonton business coach will be ensuring that there are no interruptions. Employees must get into the habit of not interrupting each other or the business owner, as well as getting into the habit of ignoring emails and letting the phones go to voicemail. This is often very difficult for entrepreneurs who have run their entire business on being available any time, but once business owners see how effective it can be, will make it much easier to adhere to. Business owners should make sure that their staff are all working at the same time uninterrupted to minimize the amount of potential interruptions. Business owners can also choose to have someone who answers the phone during this uninterrupted work time, who can deal with the phone calls and messages as well as look at any important email that has come in. While business owner will get into the habit of not scheduling customer appointments in those time periods, a dedicated person is answering phones can also be there to attend to any customers that may come in to the business.
Not only is multitasking make people less productive but studies have shown that multitasking actually correlates to peopleís happiness. The more interruptions a person had in the course of the day says Edmonton business coach, the less happy they were. On the flipside of that, employees who had the fewest amount of interruptions in their day were the happiest. By creating a super productive environment, business owners can become extremely productive, increase the quality of their work and have much more happy employees. These are all extremely compelling reasons why business owners should eliminate multitasking in their business and replace it with focused solitary uninterrupted work time.
Despite what many people think about multitasking says Edmonton business coach that it is the way to be super productive in their business, studies have shown that everybody is bad at it. There is no single person who is good at multitasking says several studies on the subject, there is only bad and less bad. In fact the people who think they are very good at it are the worst. Multitasking not only decreases productivity it also makes the people who are multitasking less intelligent in the moment. Theyíre too busy trying to think of so many things that theyíre not good at thinking about anything. But how bad multitasking is for people and for productivity, itís a wonder why more businesses are still utilizing this method in their business. If business owners are interested in increasing productivity in their business quickly, all they need to know is learn how to eliminate multitasking from their office.
The opposite of multitasking which is working on several things at the same time, is focused work. It takes the human brain on average 23 minutes in of working on the same task in order to reach peak productivity. By encouraging as many of their employees as possible to reach this peak productivity, business owners can unlock the true potential. Edmonton business coach says business owners should organize their environment in order to increase the ability of staff to work uninterrupted.
One of the simplest ways that business owners can create the environment for staff to work on uninterrupted, is to use a calendar and set aside blocks of time every day for this uninterrupted work. If everyone knows that they will be working uninterrupted every single day, they can prepare to use that time to focus on their work. Business owners can also take steps to ensure that the time that there is uninterrupted work going on, that they eliminate any potential distractions says Edmonton businesses coach. One of the biggest distractions in the workplace is the telephones. By having someone to look after the phones during this uninterrupted work time, or allowing the phones to go to voicemail and then checking messages after that, a business owner can create an environment where staff have the ability to work and focus on a certain task.
If the business owner can also eliminate the need to check email, this is also important. Edmonton business coach says by turning off email notifications and closing email browser during focused work time, can help employees and the business owner reduce temptation to check email. Again, someone can be tasked with checking email during this focus time, or afterwards and ensuring that people who need to deal with urgent emails out of commission can work on those as soon as theyíre done there focused work time.