No. You are not good at multitasking.
Listen, if the average person was good at multitasking, we wouldn't have laws prohibiting something as simple as driving a car and talking on the telephone. Hell, in my day, mother's of infants and toddlers, could carry a child, smoke a cigarette, talk on a phone with a cord they had to step over every five seconds, cook dinner, and watch TV at the same time. And that was with a load of laundry in the washer, another in the dryer, and everything was finished, and properly, by 6:00 PM. In today's world, my example isn't only sexist, it's non-existent.
So why this rant? Well yesterday, someone in charge of the safety of children used "I missed your message. I was multitasking" as an excuse for not hearing something. First off, that's not an excuse and second, no you weren't. If you work in an office and can't speak on the phone and type, while reading, you aren't even coming close to multitasking. If you're working with children, and one needs extra attention, you're not supposed to be multitasking. That's not how childcare works. Delegating jobs, because you can't handle your own is also not multitasking. It's also poor leadership. Those who know how to delegate, do so before there is chaos.
In my experience, micromanagers, list writers, extreme planners, and schedule mavens are horrible, not only at micromanaging, but at completing tasks thoroughly. This is not to say there shouldn't be some sort of goal or task-oriented mindset but if your planning leaves you overwhelmed to the point where you feel you'll have to multitask, you probably didn't plan very well. Also, and this is important. If you are setting up a lunch and have three helpers, if someone forgot the napkins, barking at your subordinates isn't a sign of leadership or delegating strength, it's quite literally a failure of you to plan properly and an inability to multitask. Someone who could, we see that the napkins were left out, do that job and their own; thus they'd be multitasking.
Here's a final thought. Think of everyone you know. Everyone. How many are actually great, not average, but exceptional, at doing one thing at a time. Honestly, if most people are only good at one thing well, what's the chance they're good at doing two, maybe three things well?
Listen, if the average person was good at multitasking, we wouldn't have laws prohibiting something as simple as driving a car and talking on the telephone. Hell, in my day, mother's of infants and toddlers, could carry a child, smoke a cigarette, talk on a phone with a cord they had to step over every five seconds, cook dinner, and watch TV at the same time. And that was with a load of laundry in the washer, another in the dryer, and everything was finished, and properly, by 6:00 PM. In today's world, my example isn't only sexist, it's non-existent.
So why this rant? Well yesterday, someone in charge of the safety of children used "I missed your message. I was multitasking" as an excuse for not hearing something. First off, that's not an excuse and second, no you weren't. If you work in an office and can't speak on the phone and type, while reading, you aren't even coming close to multitasking. If you're working with children, and one needs extra attention, you're not supposed to be multitasking. That's not how childcare works. Delegating jobs, because you can't handle your own is also not multitasking. It's also poor leadership. Those who know how to delegate, do so before there is chaos.
In my experience, micromanagers, list writers, extreme planners, and schedule mavens are horrible, not only at micromanaging, but at completing tasks thoroughly. This is not to say there shouldn't be some sort of goal or task-oriented mindset but if your planning leaves you overwhelmed to the point where you feel you'll have to multitask, you probably didn't plan very well. Also, and this is important. If you are setting up a lunch and have three helpers, if someone forgot the napkins, barking at your subordinates isn't a sign of leadership or delegating strength, it's quite literally a failure of you to plan properly and an inability to multitask. Someone who could, we see that the napkins were left out, do that job and their own; thus they'd be multitasking.
Here's a final thought. Think of everyone you know. Everyone. How many are actually great, not average, but exceptional, at doing one thing at a time. Honestly, if most people are only good at one thing well, what's the chance they're good at doing two, maybe three things well?
Comments
Post a Comment