In the first two parts of this series, we saw that multitasking and time management are far from being realistic or effective approaches to managing our ever-busy lives.  This leaves us with the question of what should we be doing instead.  The answer comes down to two inter-related concepts that I’ll discuss in the concluding part to this series – focus and setting goals.

The key to climbing the mountain

A few weeks ago, I watched a documentary that followed a group of mountain climbers who were attempting to climb Mount Everest.  Thanks to a number of technological advances, the first two-thirds of the ascent were not as daunting as it was decades earlier.  However, the final leg of the climb still presented the same challenges and dangers as it did when people first started climbing this mountain over fifty years ago.  Climbing up that final leg, the team was hit by winds far stronger than they had anticipated, making their climb much more strenuous and leaving them with even less of their precious oxygen supply for the return descent.

Despite this unexpected challenge, the climbers pushed ahead, not only reaching the summit of Mount Everest, but also safely returning back to their base camp.  When asked why they pressed ahead in spite of the conditions, one climber remarked that they couldn’t get distracted by such things as an unexpected wind storm; that the key to surviving Everest depends on your ability to pay attention to what you can control, like breathing and pacing your climb.  While this answered the interviewer’s question, it also brings to light how important keeping their focus on reaching their goal was to their success on climbing Mount Everest.

There are, of course, other examples that demonstrate the importance of maintaining focus in order achieve a successful outcome.  The success of Click here to continue reading »”Unravelling The Myths of Multitasking and Time Management – Part 3″

In the first part of this series, I discussed the misguided notion that continues to be perpetuated regarding the ability of humans to multitask.  In this second part, I’m going to talk about one of the reasons why we feel that we need to try to multitask – time management.

Going back again to the experiences we had while we were in school, I’m sure we all remember one time or another where we didn’t finish all the homework we were assigned.  As a result, we’d have either our parents or our teachers telling us that we weren’t managing our time well.  But here’s the thing – how can any of us really manage time?  We can’t put time on hold so we can take a break and do something else, and we certainly can’t get more time if we have to take care of something we hadn’t anticipated.  Whether we lose an hour of work time because we were goofing off or because something unexpected comes up makes no difference since either way, we can’t get that hour back.

So what was it that prevented us from completing our homework assignments in time if it wasn’t poor time management?  Looking back now, I think we can all appreciate that the problem was Click here to continue reading »”Unravelling The Myths of Multitasking and Time Management – Part 2″

There has been a fair amount of discussion – if not debate – over a recent study by Stanford University researchers examining the effectiveness of multitasking. Essentially, the study found that the more people tried to perform multiple tasks simultaneously, the worse they did performing any of those tasks. While some dyed-in-the-wool multitaskers have understandably wanted to challenge these findings, it’s hard to ignore the scientific evidence, if not our own real-world experiences.

As the lead researcher of the Stanford study points out, psychologists have already demonstrated that it’s physically impossible for humans to multitask.  On the surface, this makes sense since, unlike computers, we have only one processor – our brain.  Of course, there’s something more tangible that we can all relate to that further establishes this fact. Click here to continue reading »”Unravelling The Myths of Multitasking and Time Management – Part 1″