Singletasking

Multitasking Scenarios

Multitasking scenario number one: Your most important client is on the speakerphone. You lean back in your chair, your eyes intent on your computer screen. As she talks to you about her business, you see an instant message roll across your computer screen. Some co-workers are going to lunch at a nearby Thai restaurant. Can they pick up anything for you?

Pleased, you type in your order. While you’re thinking about pad Thai, your client, who kept speaking while you were planning lunch, interrupts your meanderings by asking, “Do you agree with that strategy?” What strategy? You have no idea what your client is talking about. Your mind has been on Thai cuisine, not business strategy. Maybe you should’ve focused on your job and not your lunch.

Multitasking scenario number two: You have a big, immediate, all-consuming problem and you need your boss’s counsel to solve it. You schedule a meeting to discuss the issue. During this get-together, while you carefully explain the problem, your boss constantly multitasks: tidying the desk, sending an instant message, rounding up reports and folders for an upcoming meeting, and otherwise signaling to you...