Successful Entrepreneurs Don't Multi-Task

If you are a fan of multi-tasking, or if you label yourself as a multi-tasker, then this piece of writing might upset you. Yes, there are moments when the need for multi-tasking is paramount. But when things really matter, just like in business, you might want to concentrate on one task at a time.

A successful entrepreneur doesn't multi-task, and this is a fact!

Definitions first. Multi-tasking is defined as juggling two or more tasks at the same time in an attempt to finish as many tasks as you can in the least amount of time. Simply put, it is man's ability to perform more than one activity at the same time.

A classic example involves writing an e-mail, answering a phone call, sipping your coffee, and "mouth-signaling" your incoming visitor to stay on the couch while you finish the call. That's four tasks all at once. Amazing, right?

Multi-tasking is okay, if the activities that you are taking care of are fairly simple and somewhat routine in nature. In technical terms, this is called "continuous partial attention" where one does a number of things at a time and that these tasks are not studied in depth. And this is rarely the case for a top earning marketers.

A successful entrepreneur needs concentration. For example, dealing with customers, especially face-to-face, requires your full attention. After all, people would not like it if you are taking to them while you are browsing your phone or checking your email. 

The Switching Cost - the Cost of Switching from One Task to Another

Experimental psychologists have long been studying the effect of multi-tasking on productivity. Numerous studies have shown that there is a "switching cost" every time you change from one task to another. This means that you need as much as four minutes to go back to maximum productivity on a task after an interruption. Now, if you're trying to juggle four tasks, you lose as much as sixteen minutes in one cycle of task-switching alone. Such a waste of time, huh

Given such a piece of information, would you still opt to multi-task? True, a successful entrepreneur like you has a lot of things on your plate. You sometimes wish you have more than 24 hours in a day.

What any serious entrepreneur should do, however, is finish one task at a time. On the average, you may have the same result as compared to doing portions of each task. The benefit comes from the non-quantifiable things that you get out of completing tasks one at a time.

You get less stressed simply because you'll have one frame of thought at a time. As a result, as you shred off tasks one by one, you have less and less things to think about. And this, perhaps, is the secret of success for any successful entrepreneur!

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Basmajian Art

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