You must often hear the term multitasking, a capability that many companies are after in their future employees. Many believe that you can be more productive if you can multitask. But what is multitasking truly? Is it effective to improve one’s productivity?
Multitasking is when you are able to do two or more tasks at the same time. Multitasking can be done by shifting focus from one job to another alternately or by doing several jobs at once. Most people multitask because of the demands of work and limited time to do so. However, although it is often associated with productivity, multitasking has its advantages and disadvantages.
The Disadvantages of Multitasking
- Unable to maintain focus
- Frequently encounter errors in work
- Hinders creativity
- Could be time-consuming
The advantages of Multitasking
- Able to finish the work quickly
- Increase productivity
- Preventing job delay
- Have the better potential to be the best employee
If you decide to hone your multitasking skills after reading the information above, you should know how to multitask properly. One of the most important things is to multitask by managing your time. Whether you work in the accounting team, social media and creative, or any other job position, knowing how to set the right time to meet every deadline is important. This is the first step that you should do if you want to multitask. Check out the following tips to get the benefits of multitasking.
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Make a To-do List
Spend 5 to 10 minutes every morning making a to-do list. A to-do list means a list of all the work you need to do. Make sure you have included all the things that need to be done each day. For big jobs, you can break the job down into small, manageable steps. You can use management tools, like Asana or Trello, to complete long-term projects.
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Sort the Work Priority Scale
After creating a daily to-do list, it’s time for you to sort your work based on priority. Make sure you do the work based on the highest priority first. To determine priorities, you can separate each job based on the following categories:
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Urgent and important
Place important work with imminent deadlines in this category. You will need to do this work first every day because it is the job with the highest priority.
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Not urgent but important
Jobs in this category have flexible hours. Therefore, make sure you schedule this kind of work at the right time in your schedule. This job is usually a higher priority job with a long deadline. So for this category, you have the flexibility to work on the process.
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Urgent and not important
Put jobs that you need to do immediately here, but usually these jobs are not as crucial. Jobs in this category usually have an indirect impact on completing other important work.
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Put Similar Jobs Together
After making a to-do list and compiling the priority scale, make sure you group several jobs that are similar or have the same process. That way, you can multitask effectively. The similarity of the work process will also keep your concentration when multitasking. So, you can get the benefit of multitasking.
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Delegate Work
If you think you are full of work but have a very limited time to finish it – it may be the right time for you to delegate urgent and unimportant work to others, so you can focus on high-priority work. For example, if you are a manager, you can assign a minimum supervision task such as managing social media accounts to subordinates. If you are not a manager, you can communicate the difficulty you encounter to the manager and ask for their help to delegate your work if necessary. With delegation, more work will be done in a short time.
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Minimize the Risk of Interference
Last but not least is to avoid any distractions. Distractions can interfere with your focus when multitasking. By eliminating distractions, you can focus more on getting work done. Here are some things you can do to limit distraction:
- Close the office room door if you have a room of your own
- Go to a quiet workspace if the main workplace is too noisy
- Turn off the cell phone and place it out of sight
- Listen to music if it can improve your focus
- Take a short break every hour
Like a double-edged sword, multitasking can increase or decrease your productivity. But by following the tips we have curated above, guarantee this is the best way for you to be able to multitask properly!