When I was little, my dad used to have meetings with us to tell us stories about his life – how he grew up and the lessons he had learnt. One peculiar thing he repeated at each meeting was, “Do one thing at a time“. Isn’t it funny I’m writing about this today, Father’s Day? 😀
They say women are better at multitasking than men. I’m not here to prove that right or wrong. But it’s a given that some people pride themselves in the fact that they can do several things at once. Interestingly, this is not a good practice at all.
It may seem like you are getting a lot done at once, which is false. You are only partly handling different things. It will never be good enough.
At work, we operate as a Scaled Agile team. Each Sprint requires focus so that we can iterate quickly and produce results. This mode of Project Management reminded me of my dad’s famous quote to always focus on one thing at a time.
It may sound trivial, but realising the importance of this advice has helped me zoom through other personal tasks. I focus on one goal at a time and work hard towards it until the job is done, then I can move on to the next. I can get more things ‘properly finished’ this way…if you know what I mean.
Go ahead and try it out. When you have set out your to-do list for the day, don’t try to do a bit of everything at once, even if there is a chance. Focus on only one and see the difference. Let me know how that goes.