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Time Management Day 10: Doing Two Things at a Time!
This is something that should be handled very carefully. In fact it is in all senses a balancing act. It may very well for domestic things, but in y0our professional life, if you are not careful while balancing, you could end up flat on your nose.
Let’s take an example. At home I want to iron my clothes and it takes a couple of minutes for my electric iron to heat up. At the same time I want to make myself a cup of coffee so while the iron is heating up, I might as well put the coffee maker on the stove. I need to make some toast for my breakfast and after popping two slices of bread into the toaster; I can go back to the ironing.
After ironing one shirt perhaps, I can take the boiling coffee off the stove and remove the pieces of toast from the toaster. And at the end of five minutes, I have my coffee, two slices of toast and a freshly ironed shirt. But if I am not careful, I could end up with two pieces of burnt bread, coffee that has boiled over and spilled all over the stove and probably a singed shirt.
There is too much balancing of actions involved here and it could get you quite worked up. I would suggest that if you feel that you can do more than one thing at a time, go ahead but limit the number to two or else you might end up messing a whole lot of things. There are a lot of people who read their newspapers in the loo. Well… I have my reservations about that, but if it saves time for them, well and good.
Let’s us now check out a couple of things which can be done simultaneously at the office. In today’s hectic world, where is so much fret and fury, most of us hardly get any exercise. And since we are so busted for time, the question of taking time off to get some exercise seems completely out of question.
I think it would be a good idea to try and get some exercise while you are in the office itself. When you are making a couple of telephone calls together, it would be a good idea to get up and walk up and down. If you have to sit down, stretch out your feet and try to wiggle your toes. This exercise has been proved to be a great stress reliever.
If you have a cell phone, try and get one of those hand free sets which you can attach to your body so that your hands are free while you are talking. This gives you a chance to do something useful with your hands instead of just supporting a hand set.
The essence of this lesson is that if you choose to do two things at the same time make sure that one of those things is not very important and does not require much attention. Otherwise, what will happen is that by dividing your attention to both those things, you might end up with two half baked pies, i.e. two finished tasks that are in no way complete. The human brain is a remarkable thing, there is no denying that. And some of the luckier ones have better brains than others. But all the same, trying to focus your attention on two important things at the same time, is really asking for too much.
If you want to get a real feel of what I mean try tapping your foot and snapping your fingers at the same time but to a different beat. Before you know it, one will have reached the beat of the other.
But of course, it is all a matter of common sense when it comes to choosing which two things that you can do together at the same time. It certainly will be ridiculous for you to choose to clip you nails while you are attending a board meeting. And it would be in bad taste to use a tooth pick while dictating a letter to your secretary. But you can carry your lap top while you are traveling and work on it during a flight or train journey.
The concept of doing two things at the same time is the underlying idea behind a working lunch. You get to eat and at the same time you get to do business. I will let you in on a small tip as far as working lunches are concerned. It is always better to meet and do business with an important client over lunch. I mean a lunch for which you are footing the bill of course.
One of the advantages is that there is lesser chance for disturbances at a restaurant. But the most important advantage is that when two people sit together and eat together and probably have a glass of wine or two, they kind of open up. Warm food has that effect on people.
Generally speaking, if your stomach is happy and contented and your taste buds are tickled, then you are happy. In such a circumstance you feel happy with whole world. And as for the person who treated you such a good lunch, oh well, the deal is his. There, you got your business didn’t you?
At such times, you may try to remember that though your intention must have been to conclude a good business, you must not forget to enjoy your meal; after all, you are paying for it!
Scott VanHoogstraat, COO of vanPALOS Marketing Group, LLC
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