Multitasking is an essential skill, especially in today’s multilevel, multifaceted, and multinational work-life world. While it is a requisite skill, it can quickly become ineffective, especially when tasks are rushed, delayed or left incomplete often because of external interruptions, requests and expectations or internal commitments and constraints.
Sound familiar? Has this ever left you wondering, at the end of the day, “What progress have I truly made?”.
In my recent blog on The Power to Attract Lasting Results, I expanded on the factors surrounding Activity Impact versus Activity Trap, and how they are often misconstrued as being one and the same because we feel like if we just “do” we will be “done”. But as we all eventually find out, doing is not the same as accomplishing.
According to many studies, there are many benefits to multitasking such as saving time, saving money, increasing productivity, preventing procrastination, increasing brain power, developing resilience, and increasing employability. But multitasking does also have its cons like inefficient use of time when switching tasks, mental blocks, memory function, mental health effects, creative inhibition, and inability to collaborate.
Most of all, and probably the most important drawback of being focused on too many activities at one time, is impact. Impact can mean many things to many people at different times, but in the end, it is as defined, “a marked effect or influence on a particular entity or environment”. The key word here is ‘marked’. Meaning, that the accomplishment must be observable or measurable either in economic or social terms.
Activity Trap Vs. Activity Impact
In the hustle of performing daily tasks, it’s all too easy to fall into an Activity Trap — being engrossed in busy-ness without knowing why the tasks are being performed and what result would signify genuine effectiveness.
On the other hand, measuring your activity on the why and what will help you better define your process and framework, as well as understand the efficiencies of your approach. An Activity Impact approach does just that – it is a veritable tool for actualising your purpose, steering you towards strategic actions that forge meaningful outcomes, and ensuring you do the right things to achieve your purpose with conscious intent.
To pivot from activity trap to activity impact requires intentionality, strategy, and reflection.
Here are a few steps to consider when cultivating your Activity Impact –
1. Clarity of Purpose: The essence of Activity Impact is derived from clarity of purpose. Hence begin with a crystal-clear articulation of your purpose. Your purpose acts like your north star, guiding your journey and helping you steer clear of distractions.
2. Define Clear Objectives: Identify three to five key yearly objectives that signify achieving your purpose. Craft these goals to be SMART—Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
3. Measure to Understand: Keep a daily log of your activities including the time spent on each activity, evaluating how they align with your objectives at week’s end. Establish metrics for assessing effectiveness and adjust your approach as necessary. Regularly review your progress against these metrics. In case of gaps, be flexible to adjust your strategy.
4. Identify High-Impact Activities: Map your activities against your objectives. Write down your purpose, and your performance objectives, and list down the activities including the time spent on them under each objective. You might discover that some of your objectives lack corresponding actions beneath them. Additionally, there could be numerous activities disconnected from any of your performance goals. Furthermore, the time dedicated to certain tasks may not align with the significance of the objectives they’re meant to advance. The findings will help you establish the demarcation line between activities leading you to impact and those leading you into a trap.
5. Eliminate Unnecessary Actions: Using the 80/20 Pareto rule, identify 20% of the efforts that drive 80% of your results. This classification will help you identify which activities truly merit your time and which don’t. Sometimes there will be demands on your time to complete certain activities that are a priority for others, but not for you. Find a balance by consciously choosing the time and effort you will devote to such tasks. Otherwise, it will eat into your finite reserve of time, attention and resources. Saying “no” at times becomes crucial to preserving your time and energy for what truly matters.
6. Delegate What You Can: Empower others by delegating necessary tasks which are not personally crucial for you to perform. This spreads the workload and frees you for strategic thought.
7. Reflect and Learn: Set aside regular intervals for reflection on what’s working and what isn’t. This practice sharpens your approach and celebrates progress, no matter the size.
8. Seek Feedback: It’s often difficult to assess the impact of your actions from the inside. Outsider perspectives can shine a light on overlooked areas of improvement. Be receptive to feedback from peers, mentors, or stakeholders to refine your actions further.
As your responsibility grows, use these methods to shift your influence from impacting products to impacting people; then to impacting your company or organization, and finally doing what you can do for your industry or your profession. Your power to make an impact is endless.
Seize this opportunity to make a meaningful impact and elevate your leadership to a level of respect and reverence by joining my 7-week (66-day) online course which aims to help you make a significant improvement in life areas such as spirituality, family, health, work, finances, learning, and self-identity, with an ultimate aim of guiding you towards becoming a highly transformational and impactful leader.
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