It is physically impossible to multitask, according to past scientific research.  We are not more productive when we are mentally bouncing back and forth.  Our minds are unable to jump between activities without there being a loss of quality as well as decreased productivity. That has been a wake-up call for many who considered themselves good at multitasking. 

However there is a possible exception to this.  It appears that about 2.5% of the population may actually multitask without loss of performance.  This report comes from the Psychonomic Bulletin and Review (May 2010).  They tested college students, giving them a math-and-memorization test and a driving simulation.  First they did each activity as a single task, and then they tried doing them at the same time.

Nearly all subjects took longer to brake while multitasking and scored lower on the test.  However 5 out of the 200 tested were able to do both without a loss of quality.  These were dubbed supertaskers.

Before you jump to the conclusion that you would be one of the rare few supertaskers, note that this was in a simulated situation.  Age differences were not evaluated.

My reaction is to proceed with caution.  The results are still inconclusive.  It will be interesting to see if this concept can be further exposed.  Meanwhile, instead of immediately placing yourself among the group of supertaskers, you should focus more on the fact that the vast majority were, as in previous research, unable to multitask without affecting performance.

For more research about multitasking, visit our time management statistics page.

You may have been feeling that you are doing more and more work with fewer and fewer resources during the last years, and you are not alone.  Because of the current economic environment and job insecurity, employees keep experiencing added pressures.

In March 2010, InterCall, a conferencing and collaboration service provider, conducted a survey of 2500 American workers who use technology in their everday lives.  The results reflect these pressures:

• Required to do more with fewer resouces (48%)
• Doing the jobs of two people (39%)
• Challenging to take time off from work (47%)
• Feel a need to stay connected 24/7 (30%)

It is all very well to fill in the gaps during a downturn, hoping for a turnaround when more employees are hired and pressures will ease.  This often leads to increased time management training and development of skills.  However the interesting question is whether there will be a lessening of the workload once things are on a more even keel. 

Will your excess of work become the norm for office organizing routines  instead of a temporary situation?

We often spend so much time at work that a majority of our friends are tied to the work place.  In attempting to build friendships, it is tempting to reveal personal details.  Yet “too much information” (TMI) can be detrimental to business relationships as well as a non-productive use of time for you and the recipient.

That may sound harsh, given that we all want friends and we have a limited amount of hours outside of the office to cultivate them.  Yet think about a colleague whose visits and conversations you often try to avoid.  Why is that?

• Do they reveal personal information that is of no interest to you?
• Do they tend to talk for too long?
• Are they interfering with your schedule of work?
• Do you regard them differently when you know certain intimate details?

It is one thing to be friendly to everyone and another one to expose private information about yourself and your family.  Even if you and the recipient consider yourself good friends, is anyone else around you also exposed to this conversation?  Might they regard you in another light after hearing certain conversations?

It is the same principal as posting photos and comments on Facebook or Twitter that you would not want your boss or a future employer to access.  Keep the little details of your life out of the workplace because: 

1. It keeps you from getting your work done as efficiently as possible so that you can leave at a reasonable hour–and then have time for friends.
2. You may be taking time from someone else who is too polite to say anything or just hasn’t figured out how to avoid you–not a good working arrangement.
3. You may be harming your professional image.

Just about every workplace has distractions-coworkers, social networking, email, and for some, even kids. You may be at your most productive without these little time wasters, but at some point, you’ve got to deal with them if you want to get some work done. You may be tempted to push them away, but what seems like a burden may actually be of use to you.

The key to managing distractions is to find a way to satisfy your needs and make them work for you. If you find yourself wanting to socialize online, make the work emails you send a little more friendly. When one of your coworkers stops by to chat, turn the discussion to work and ask them for help on a project. You can even turn your kids into helpers-if they’re interested in what you’re doing, they can work on an age appropriate task, like stapling or sorting papers for you. Redirecting distractions in this manner is valuable, because it creates productivity for you while at the same time sending a message to others that you’d like to be focused on the task at hand.

The Internet is an especially distracting place for many employees, and depending on your workplace’s policies, can even lead to disciplinary action when misused. But not all distractions online will keep you from your work. Listen to online radio with headphones as a motivator, or if you’re allowed, stream your favorite TV shows in the background to keep you focused on work instead of stopping to read the latest on Facebook.

Social networking is also an online pitfall. If you find yourself frequently checking Twitter, think about how you can make this habit a positive, productive use of your time. Don’t just follow your friends-pay attention to industry leaders, resources, and others that can provide valuable insight into your work.

By looking at distractions in a creative light, you’ll find that you can keep them from interfering with your productivity, while at the same time turning the distractions into tools that can help you get your work done. Here are a few tips for keeping distractions in check.

• Monitor your time
• Send a clear message that you are focused and work-oriented
• Always think about how you can make a distraction useful
• Disconnect if you need to
• Tell other people about your deadlines and commitments
• Delegate and ask for help

This guest post is contributed by Angela Martin, who writes on job search  topics.  She welcomes your email comments: angela.martin77@gmail.com.

It seems media keep pointing to social networking as the place to be, resulting in a decreasing reliance on email.  Since prior complaints about productivity blocks concerned the amount of email with which we have to contend, that might be a positive thing.  But is it true?

Do not yet discount the importance of email in our lives.  A poll of college students (that group most likely to be involved in social networking) shows they still regard email as the more critical method of communicating.

What ranked as important on their “Can’t live without…”  list, according to the Participatory Marketing Network and Pace University’s Lubin School of Business’ IDM Lab (10/20/09) ?

• 26%, Checking, reading, and sending email
• 26%, Text messaging 
• 15%, Watching TV
• 11%, Talking on the phone 
• 9%, Visiting social networking sites
• 7%, Reading magazines
• 6%, Visiting websites other than social networking

More research, from ExactTarget (10/14/09), showed that social networks were not cutting the time Internet users devoted to email.   The reverse was true.  Those more heavily involved in social networking were also using email more.

What does all this say for businesses?   Last year, social media use by businesses with fewer than 100 employees doubled to 24% from 12% according to a study University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business and Network Solutions LLC (January 2010). 

Before businesses put too much of their effort into social media as a marketing tool, be sure to evaluate the results. A headline in the Wall Street Journal on 3/16/20 states, “Entrepreneurs Question Value of Social Media:…Hype Right Now Exceeds the Reality”

 A separate study by the same group above (University of Maryland and Network Solutions) found that:

• 22% made a profit from social media marketing
• 53% broke even
• 19% lost money

Be sure you have a method for evaluating the results of your marketing efforts in the social networking arena. 

Meanwhile, email will continue to be a focal tool in productive work flow.  Your employees should have the time management training that keeps it from becoming an overwhelming part of each day.

This economic downturn has produced a surge in the number of part-time workers, including freelancers and consultants, managing two or more shift jobs.  In finding ways to cope with the subsequent challenges, there are lessons for all of us.

Standard techniques for productivity and time management become even more difficult to employ.  

• Instead of being able to focus on one type of activity at a time, which is more productive because you limit ineffective multitasking efforts, you are bouncing from one type of job to another.
• You may not have the luxury of scheduling an uninterrupted block of time each day if all of your jobs are for only two to four hours.
• There is little downtime because the shift consumes extra travel hours.  You may end up with few quality minutes for family and self.

However there are also lessons here for everyone, regardless of whether you are handling one job or balancing several positions.  What can you do when you find yourself in a situation where you are struggling to keep up?

• Become better organized on the home front.  Have a system for dealing with mail and other incoming items.  It is much easier to put processes  in place right now, and keep up with them, then to watch a chore grow into an overwhelming project.  This saves minutes every day and cuts down on stress.  If you need help to start, get it now instead of waiting.
• Involve family members.  You cannot do it all yourself.  Delegating and sharing tasks with a spouse and children does not mean you are shirking your home duties.  Rather it leaves more time for interaction.
• Make the best use of the “free” minutes you have.  What can you do that is both productive and escapist, like a workout with a lively dance theme?  You want to look for something that will turn off the mental work switch and absorb you without going into a dull, vegetative state.
• Plan ahead for the coming week.  Write down both business commitments and personal activities.  Things may change but are more likely to happen if it is written down first.

Have you recently picked up a software or hardware manual, read the instructions, and then wondered, “What are they talking about?”

Many companies today have reduced their user manuals to a quick flyer on how to set up, get started, and run the program.  Yes, it does make the product seem easy to use on the surface, but how many times have you been frustrated in your attempts to understand?

Even in the online Help section to which you might later turn (providing you get far enough into installation for it to be accessible), you may read the outlined steps but then not be able to find the buttons or words they are telling you to press.

This is just one example of how we have become briefer and briefer in our communications but without being able to get a full point across.  It is the foundation of Twitter.  Tweeters push out a quick, perhaps interesting, phrase, and then you have to click to another user’s comments or to an online link, and that moves on to something else.

I am all in favor of increased productivity through good time management techniques, but I question our direction in some cases.  Yes, we might quickly read through an email, but did we receive sufficient information to make a decision or understand the problem?  Is there another step, like a phone call or return email that I now need to do because of that brief note?

If you have important (or even just interesting) information to convey, consider taking the time to provide enough detail to be effective in bringing about the desired action.  This increased length can actually be a time saver, so do not shy away from composing a useful missive. 

Productivity does not always mean being fast or terse.  It does mean that you reduce the number of steps or the time it takes to bring about the desired action, whether for yourself or for colleagues.

Do you still have stacks of business cards on your desk or tossed into desk drawers?  No matter how tech savvy my clients seem to be, managing business cards remains a time management challenge.

In many instances, I am comfortable with my clients using either paper or electronic means as long as they only use one system and not a combination of several.  For example, keeping both a paper calendar and a calendar in Outlook requires that you remember to update one or the other each time an entry is made.  Invariably something will fall through the cracks.

However in the case of business cards, I strongly encourage everyone to get their cards into a software program because it is so much easier to find someone that way.  Even if you only remember a first name or a type of business, the computer will search for you.  Otherwise you are trying to remember which stack, or which book, might have that card.  There’s too much time wasted here.

To get those cards into your system, CardScan is usually the quickest way.  With its mini-scanner, all of the card’s information is placed into the appropriate slots, and then you can add a group note or an individual note, plus separate them into categories.

I’ve recently been shown a solution that I wouldn’t recommend long-term but that would be handy when you are traveling or have multiple meetings back-to-back.  ContactKeeper has launched a series of products designed to keep cards and notes together.  Each page in this portfolio (3 different sizes) has a slot for you to place a card and then write out the notes and follow-up actions under that.  It’s much more efficient than trying to scribble notes on the back of a card.

The product looks smart while you are out with a client and is organized so that you can easily transfer the card and the notes into your software contact management program without having to rely on your memory for conversation details days or weeks later.

Whatever method you use, get rid of those stacks of cards.  They are inefficient and quickly become clutter around your desk area.  It’s a big step in office organizing.

45% of U. S. workers are satisfied with their jobs, the lowest per cent in the past 22 years, according to the Conference Board’s annual survey.

The fact that only 45% of workers are currently satisfied with their positions does not bode well for productivity in the workplace.  What can companies do to improve the happiness of their employees as well as produce better results for themselves? 

Now happiness coaching is finding its way into workplaces.  This is more than the concept of a positive attitude.  Instead it is about inner happiness and control over mood despite negative economic news or personal misfortune.

Some of the ideas include:

• Focus on the process of your work, where you have control, instead of outcomes, which you cannot control.  If you do not have the systems you need to be in control, there is time management training available to help with processes.
• Do not immediately make judgments as to good and bad.  Remain flexible and willing to examine positive aspects of every outcome.
• Keep your mind clear.  You can build in times to meditate as well as use a simple technique like writing everything down so you do not have to remember.

Ask yourself what YOU can do to improve YOUR work environment and your own happiness.  Other people do not make us unhappy.  Only we can do that to ourselves.

Past studies over the years have shown the results of positive attitudes enhancing productivity.

• 2005, Psychological Bulletin:  Happier people miss fewer days of work and receive better evaluations.
• 2004, American Behavioral Scientist:  Teams with positive energy and who built up each other produced increased profits and better customer satisfaction.
• 2001, University of Michigan:  Happy people can think more openly and creatively.

You may not be in your ideal job right now, but that does not preclude your being happy for the moment.  Take control of your feelings and your output will also improve.  In turn that positive outlook, inner happiness, and great evaluations can lead to the next great job!

We’ve been hearing for years about the paperless office, and great strides have been made in this direction.  Yet somehow there are still hard copies of documents on desks and scribbled notes everywhere.  Paper calendars continue to sell, and business cards accumulate in stacks and in drawers.

The push in recent years for getting on the electronic bandwagon are the eReaders, and the competition is fierce.  Yet have you been to a bookstore lately?  They do not seem ready to shut their doors yet.

Newspapers and magazines offer online subscriptions, at great cost savings to them, and for awhile it looked like advertisers were abandoning the print mode.  However in recent months, after a two-year lull, there seems to be a reversal in the trend.  Multimedia Research data show magazine readership has risen 4.3% during the past five years.

If paperless is the most productive way to go, why are these situations occurring?

There is no doubt that many of the tasks we do are better performed electronically.  Yet we like paper!  One reason is that we read 30-50% faster with a hard copy as compared with an electronic copy.  If you’re not sure about this, consider how you often print out a long email or a document you might want to read in depth later.

Reading faster, jotting notes in the side margins, or comparing documents side-by-side can definitely increase productivity.

One of the newer magazine ads put out through a campaign by five publishers shows a photo of Michael Phelps alongside the message:

We surf the Internet.
We swim in magazines.

It is often easier and quicker to have a paperback or magazine tucked in your briefcase when there is a 10 or 15 minute delay or a need to wait in a line.  At home and in hotels, it feels cozier to settle in with a hard copy of a book or magazine than with a piece of electronic equipment. 

Everything is evolving, and it is good to combine the best of both worlds, but do not feel that, in order to be the most productive, you must have only the latest and greatest technology.