Quality vs.Quantity & the Myth of Multi-tasking

After a harried day at work (one where I had a zillion things on my to do list, I had piled on a slew of sales meetings and was all the while trying to stay on top of my email), I realized that while I had gone though a full day of activity I could not recall the details of any task accomplished!
I felt totally exhausted, and I also realized that in essence, I had wasted a full day of work and created more work for myself. I could not decipher any information or details from the conversations I had during the day and I had to double check my sent email folder to see reread my communication.

So I asked myself, does multi-tasking work for me? Not really. I was trying to accomplish SO much but had really accomplished very little. It made me think that quality is really more important than quantity. It is something that perhaps we all know, but often seem to forget.

What is the real cost of my multi-tasking? What did I lose by aiming for quantity accomplishments versus quality accomplishments? Since I was essentially not being present during my sales meetings, the likely hood that I would close the deal was pretty slim. By re-reviewing my sent email, I was wasting time and seriously doing 2x as much work.

This wake up call was a good one for me. I know that most of us have too much to do but perhaps if we focus on being present and tackling only what can reasonably be done within one day then we will actually have a shot at getting “the real work” accomplished.

posted by Amy

photo courtesy of help i need help