IS IT CHAOS OR IS IT ORDER IF YOU MULTITASK?
It seems everybody today is preoccupied with searching for a new normal. The new normal for the household and the new normal at the workplace. The new normal includes managing work tasks while working from home. Working from home presents a whole new set of challenges. Appropriate internet speed, internet security, proper monitor and adequate office space are few challenges for many.
Managing tasks at home seem less daunting because we’ve done most of those prior to the pandemic. The additional tasks of childcare management and “home schooling” for those not regularly home schooled requires a balancing act too. How to master all these tasks? Multitasking of course*! ***Is it chaos or is it order if you multitask?
One day you might be in the office, the next day you work from home and then back in the office and so on. It gives the workplace an opportunity to practice better social distancing. Safer for everyone. But it can disrupt routines more easily for some than others. Multitasking could be that routine that’s a bit more complicated working from home. Discovering the new normal will not be easy since the pandemic continues to disrupt life as we once knew it. And for many, it’s a bigger disruption because balancing work and home just became more overwhelming. Is it chaos or is it order if you multitask?
Working during a pandemic gives new meaning and direction to multitasking. In this new normal, working from home means many things, “being an employee” and getting your work done timely and efficiently. It also means being “a parent” and making sure school work, extracurricular activities, including the household tasks are completed to keep order. A routine for one task and a routine for another task, and having to explain to others why you do it that way, can be exhausting. Everyone has their own version of “this is how it’s done”, and tensions can rise because of presumptions that we are all on the same page. Perhaps presumption of being on the same page is that everyone is multitasking. Multitasking has been a routine part of daily lives so we resist having to change that behavior. Is it chaos or is it order if you multitask?**
For some, multitasking is easy, it assures order in completion of tasks, at work and at home. For others, it leads to chaos and disarray because it is seeming to be “bigger” than the task at hand. Most likely, prior to the Coronavirus, multitasking was either chaos or order unknowingly. So, is it chaos or is it order if you multitask?
Let us define multitasking using the Merriam-Webster definition. Multitasking is defined two ways: 1) the concurrent performance of several jobs by a computer and 2) the performance of multiple tasks at one time (which requires a person who is good at multitasking). It appears the definition (requiring a person who is good at multitasking) insinuates chaos rather than order. How does one really know if you are multitasking successfully? After all, today it seems that doing one task at a time is no longer feasible. Is it chaos or is it order if you multitask? Technology today makes multitasking easier, or does it?
It’s very common today that tasks at hand require multitasking. Imagine how to handle this scenario: you are sitting at your desk in your home office answering urgent emails. Your cell phone rings, you glance at the screen and continue answering emails. “Let it go to voice mail” you decide, you need to knock out the emails. Staying focused on the task. Moments later, your calendar pops up and alerts you of the Skype meeting in 30 minutes. How can you possibly work on the emails that require timely responses AND participate in the Skype meeting? Your cell phone ringtone reminds you of the voice mail. You play the message and realize you need to return the call before 5pm, it is your daughters allergy doctor. Is it chaos or is it order if you multitask?
This scenario might seem easy to manage because you can call the doctor’s office while having the phone on speaker, and talk with them while continuing to answer emails. You have to call before 5 o’clock and your skype meeting will go until 5:30. But is it really manageable? Your concentration is split into two areas: “subject knowledge of email so that your answers are accurate” and “important information” about your daughter’s allergy blood work results. Can you concentrate on answering emails and listen fully while typing? You likely will have questions to ask. Will you have to re-write any of the email answers because you were distracted?**** Is it chaos or is it order if you multitask?
You certainly can’t type during the skype meeting and you won’t meet the 5pm deadline per the doctor’s office request. Multitasking as best as you can do it. It’s what many of us do throughout our day, every day. Is it chaos or is it order if you multitask?****
According Amy Chen, Business Coach and consultant, her article in entrepreneur.com says “multitasking really is not multitasking. Rather its task switching.” Is it chaos or is it order if you are multitasking? Imagine your brain as a pinball machine. The ball has one path to take to get to its destination but, it has obstacles that prevent it from traveling directly. You must navigate those obstacles quickly and successfully to get the pinball in the right path to win the game. The ball bouncing around and taking alternate paths means your brain is overwhelmed. You have difficulty getting the pinball back to its correct path. You are “task switching” rather than multitasking by hitting different levers and buttons to get the ball back to its correct path. This requires your brain to reorient itself each time you switch a lever or button. Imagine answering emails while talking on the phone to the allergy doctor and getting ready for the skype meeting again! Its task switching rather than multitasking. Is it chaos or is it order if you multitask?
In order to be efficient and productive for work and at home tasks, it makes sense to accept it is chaos and not order to multitask. And, we really are task switching. If we consider it task switching it will allow us to be closer to being efficient and as productive as our expectations demand. It will eliminate chaos and make our work more orderly. It’s very common today that tasks at hand require multi switching. So, can we become efficient and productive doing this? Can we reduce the chaos and complete tasks more orderly? Yes, where there is a will there is a way.
According to wikiHow, April 20, 2020 the following steps are recommended to successfully multitask:
• Establish your goals. • Evaluate whether multitasking is appropriate for the goals and tasks you must do. • Set aside time to give intense or complex tasks your full focus. • Choose tasks which are routine, familiar, or fluent to multitask. • Plan ahead. • Work ahead. • Allow extra time. • Work on one thing at a time, but alternate. • Eliminate unnecessary tasks. • Simplify tasks you can’t eliminate. • Choose compatible tasks. • Choose tasks which are easy to interrupt. • Keep a selection of smaller projects or simpler tasks around to fill gaps in a larger project. • Use wait time efficiently. • Work at a pace you can sustain.
Multitasking can be achieved if you follow these steps, it can be a time saver and be effective. Failure to adhering to steps such as these suggested by wikiHow otherwise can cause chaos and not order. Today more than ever we are challenged to work balancing acts throughout the day. If we know the difference between multitasking and task switching, and we can adhere to the steps suggested by wikiHow, multitasking won’t BE CHAOS and block your success for completion of goals/tasks. It can provide necessary ORDER that will lead to efficiency and productivity.
About the Writer: Becky Blaesing owns Blazing Kiss Media. She provides creative and strategic business development solutions for her clients. She lives with her husband and two rescue dogs affectionately referred to as “the boys”.