Comments on: Calendaring and Preparation Fight Bad Multi-Tasking on Projects

By: Bookmarks about Calendaring

Bookmarks about Calendaring — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:00:11 +0000

[...] – bookmarked by 1 members originally found by sockmonkey35 on 2008-07-29 Calendaring and Preparation Fight Bad Multi-Tasking on Projects [...]

By: Bob Turek

Bob Turek — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:49:56 +0000

Becky- keeping the mindshare going is important or you simply lose it. I’m also a fan of cutting down on the number of projects you do in order to do better on the ones you keep. Thanks for commenting!

By: becky

becky — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 04:50:24 +0000

Bob, I think one of the keys to transitioning is to work on a project frequently enough that you don’t have a big ‘ramp-up’ period. I find that if I don’t touch a project for a week or two, I spin my wheels while I figure out where I was. But when I touch it every couple of days, it’s much easier to start where I left off.

By: Miki

Miki — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 19:52:40 +0000

Good grief, Bob, you have me blushing:) Thanks for the kind words.

By: Bob Turek

Bob Turek — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 19:38:42 +0000

For all you readers out there- Miki is the real deal. She has dealt with business people from CEOs on down and really understands the cultural aspects of excellent business practices. I’ve had the pleasure of speaking to one of her CEO clients about his business and the help Miki has provided. Thanks for your valuable contribution to this blog Miki!

By: Miki

Miki — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:32:18 +0000

Bob, helping clients hone their ability to productively switch focus meant finding a way to reduce the time needed to get back to where they were.

We do this by creating a summary that they update wqith a few quick notes before switching to the other task. They do this even when it means asking a caller to “hold just a second” while they jot some quick notes.

If you or your readers need some additional help with this feel free to call me at 866.265.7267 or email me at miki@rampupsolutions.com.

By: Bob Turek

Bob Turek — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 15:32:51 +0000

Hi Miki- appreciate the comment and the link. Never hesitate to link- I’ll probably post this as it goes to the heart of poor project management. The ability to switch focus, for me, is pretty good but I always have to re-review notes, strategies, and next steps which takes a lot of time. The key is for me is to be engaged with the project in a way that I can be productive and innovative.

By: Miki

Miki — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 00:07:26 +0000

Hi Bob, a couple of years ago I wrote abut research done in 2003 showing that multitasking resulted in doing both tasks poorly; the human mind just wasn’t designed to work that way. The post has links to other research on the subject. (Please excuse the extra link:)

What I’ve found useful is honing the ability to switch focus, i.e., being able to jump from one item to another and focus productively with little rampup time.