The Mistake of Multitasking


by Tom Richard - Date: 2007-07-31 - Word Count: 639 Share This!

After running a high-end retail store for over a year, I had things running exactly the way I wanted, with a high sales volume to prove that things were as they should be. Yet this unhealthy sense of control couldn't last forever. Eventually, I was required to leave my store for two whole days to attend a company-mandated training session in St. Louis.

Being the first time in over six months that I was not physically in my store, I had everything set up so that I wouldn't miss a beat. The email was forwarded to my phone, my delivery book was with me to call customers on my breaks, and I was in close, constant contact with my store's assigned babysitter.

Just 3 hours into the 2-day training, the company's national sales manager picked up on my obsessive dedication to my store. At the next break, he pulled me into the hallway, out of the earshot of the other employees. A normally calm and relaxed man, he cornered me, looked me dead in the eye, and firmly said, "This is your job today, and you are not doing your job!"

With those few words, he left me completely stunned. It was a lesson I was not fully prepared for, and a lesson that has stayed with me ever since. I thought I was doing my job. I thought I was going above and beyond the call of duty, keeping things running smoothly in my Philadelphia-based store over 1,000 miles away. Yet, at that moment, and every moment since then, I have realized what he meant and why it is so important.

For me, being told I was not doing my job to the best of my ability was enough of an awakening to reevaluate exactly how I was doing things. I thought I was accomplishing more by being in more than one place at a time, but the reality was that I was actually accomplishing less. I was doing a poor job of managing my store from a distance and of making the most of where I currently was. Had I realized that my job was to be at the training, I would have learned a lot from the beginning of the session to apply to my store once I returned.

The biggest obstacle in business today is being present with each and every task that is in thrown our way. In the midst of the BlackBerry and iPhone era, we find ourselves multitasking to a point of watered-down effectiveness, doing multiple things poorly instead of one thing with solid efficiency.

If you are at a meeting, then your job, at that moment, is to give your full attention to the meeting. If you are fulfilling an order for a customer, then your job, at that moment, is to give your complete attention to your customer and the order. Giving anything less to that moment means that you are not doing your job. Whether you are thinking about what you will do after work, or how you need more customers, the moment you let your mind be elsewhere, you allow your body to go through the motions mechanically.

Diverting your mental resources to other projects or thoughts, gives yourself a grave disservice. You minimize your ability to be charismatic, concise, creative and convincing, and your performance lacks. You become a person who is more concerned about getting the job done, than completing the job in a way you can be proud of.

Give each task your complete, undivided attention. Not only will you get everything done this way, you will complete each project with a zeal, zest and zing that has not shown itself in a long time. Remember, nothing has ever happened in the past or the future. Everything happens in the present, so live the present, and make things happen.


Related Tags: meetings, business, selling, sales, time management, working, multitasking, professional life

Tom Richard is a speaker, writer and trainer who has dedicated his life to spreading the joy that comes from discovering your true self and enjoying the rewards of operating at your full potential. He enjoys providing training and coaching opportunities for salespeople. For more information, visit www.boltfromblue.com, call 419-494-5120, or e-mail tom@boltfromblue.com

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