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E-Myth – “Why most small businesses don’t work & what to do about it”

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The Myth Of Multitasking | Edmonton Business Coach


People have been led to believe for many years now says Edmonton business coach that multi tasking is the paragon of productivity. They view the idea of working on many tasks at the same time as extremely productive. However this is the furthest thing from the truth, science has proven that not only multitasking is not effective, it is actually bad for productivity, it reduces intellectual capacity and costs people their happiness. Multitasking is actually something that should be avoided in order to reach peak productivity and get the most done in a day.

While many people believe that multitasking is a great skill, itís being shown more and more that multitasking should be avoided. Take texting and driving, there are laws being passed all over the world against distracted driving, because it can significantly increase the number of accidents on the road because people are not paying attention. Distracted driving is basically what multitasking is. Your doing multiple things, but none of them very well. You wouldnít want your surgeon is going to be operating on you to be multitasking, you wouldnít want a pilot who is flying you in a plane miles above the ground to be multitasking, why people think itís okay in their own business or in their own life. Just because lives arenít on the line says business coach, doesnít mean it suddenly becomes a good idea.

People can unlearn how to multitask simply by eliminating the number of distractions they have in their life. People donít need to have email notifications on constantly, even if they are extremely busy in business. Many people think that they have to respond to emails as soon as they come in, but this is actually not true says Edmonton business coach. If reading emails is important to business, an entrepreneur can hire someone to be checking emails, or they can set aside a certain time in the day itís devoted to checking emails. If some one was to check their email every time they got a notification saying that there was an email to check, they would be constantly interrupted and not only not accomplish the task they were working on, they would also not do a great job with the emails.

Another way that people can learn how to stop multitasking is to not have social media notifications on their phone either. Itís even okay says Edmonton business coach to be unavailable for phone calls, either by having someone take messages for you or setting your phone to go directly to voicemail. By eliminating the number of distractions that happen in a day, business owners can increase their productivity and get more accomplished. They can set aside time in their day to check their phone messages or look at social media but people should focus on one task in the moment and business owners that should be the strategic priorities will help them grow their business and become successful.

Why is it that so many people believe that multitasking is the key to peak productivity says Edmontons business coach. The science actually says it takes on average 23 minutes for a person to reach peak productivity. Every time a person is interrupted, it takes them another 23 minutes to get back to a productive level again. Since multitasking is essentially constant interruptions, a multitasker may never reach peak productivity in their life. Thereís many ways that people can learn how to be productive and avoid multitasking in order to get a lot accomplished.

One thing that businesses can do in order to increase productivity in their business as well as minimize interruptions so that employees can get a lot accomplished says Edmonton business coach is to create a time block schedule that includes time for solitary focus to work, time to collaborate, times to check email and voicemail for example. Itís important that everyone in this workplace are all on the same schedule at the same time because it will minimize interruptions throughout the entire office. If half of the office is working on focused solitary work, and the other half is working on collaborative work done that increases the instances or at least the possibility of interruptions. Business owners can time block the entire schedule of the office, so that everyone is doing focused work at the same time where nobody is getting interrupted.

The same science that says it takes an average person 23 minutes to reach their peak intellectual capacity, is the same science that says the more interruptions that a person has in their day, the less happy they end up becoming. So the less interruptions equates to happier people. The less someone gets interrupted, the happier and more productive they are. There is no reason why any business owner would not want happy and productive employees in their workplace says Edmonton business coach.

Itís extremely important that once people are on these time block, that they eliminate the ability to be interrupted. This means removing email notifications from computers and phones, so that a person canít get distracted but emails or phone calls. They can at a time block in order to work on phone calls and emails, but focused solitary work should be used for increasing productivity in the business and work from the strategic priorities of the business, therefore itís extremely important that it can get accomplished.

By eliminating multitasking in a personís life as well as in their business, a business owner can ensure that they are not only increasing their own productivity, but the productivity of their entire office says Edmonton business coach. A byproduct of that increased productivity is increased happiness of the owner themselves as well as all of their staff members. The more increased productivity in a business means that business can increase their goals better and faster, reaching their goals and surpassing expectations. Business owners should eliminate multitasking in their business immediately.