There’s all these studies I won’t bore you with, that state that multitasking does not work. The same studies go on to say that no one really multitasks. All of us toggle back and forth between different tasks wasting energy and being less efficient. The people who did the studies ought to have a few kids. Because let me tell you, if you’ve got kids you multitask.
You are doing the dishes, and making sure nobody dies in the next room. You are on the phone, and making evil faces to at least one child to get some quiet. This works well for keeping the species alive, but not so much for you reaching your goals.
For goal reaching you really do need a toggle switch. Because if you had unlimited time and resources, you wouldn’t need advice like this on how to make limited time and very limited resources work for you. Actually, if you had that first set of things you’d be on a beach and you wouldn’t care about goals.
A toggle switch allows you to go from one task to another with equal focus. It’s the process by which I get done with a client, and then use the 5 min. in between clients to write part of this blog. I’m not doing two things at once, I’m switching focus so I can use very limited amounts of time.
This won’t work if you have multiple goals. Toggle switches move between two points and that’s it. So if I have one goal, to get my blog done for the day, and one basic job, see clients, the toggle switch works great. Even if I have several jobs, but only one goal, I’ll still be able to toggle.
Find your most important goal and only work on that. Once you get it done, you may be able to move to something else. Or you could take a break and get one of those little fruity drinks with an umbrella and imagine you are already at the beach.
- Pick one goal to work on.
- Set up your computer, equipment, shoes, whatever you need to accomplish that goal is ready to go.
- Switch your focus to the goal whenever you have 5min or more.
- When you’ve accomplished your daily goal, reward yourself. I’ll be having the fruity drink.