Most people have difficulty doing one thing at a time. They prefer to have a hand in many things at the same time in the name of multi-tasking and efficiency. The danger with this approach is that you will finish many things at about 80 % instead of doing the most important thing at 100 %. Sometimes it is not knowing what is the most important thing and other times it is not being able to focus.

My suggestion is to decide what is most important and invest 100 % of your effort on that task. After you finish the most important task, spend another 15 minutes to make sure that you are leveraging what you have just finished.

Once you have done that, you will have created a surge of energy that you can apply to the other tasks. I recommend that before you bulldoze through the other tasks, regroup and prioritize again and begin round two with the remaining most important tasks.

Go back to focusing 100 % on the most important item on this new list unless there is something so pressing & important that cannot wait (fyi contrary to common belief there are very few things that cannot wait).

Multi tasking can also mean running away from that one most important thing that you “must do”! One very important task totally complete is worth more than a few tasks nearly complete!

Try the above approach and you will see how you are able to cross the real important things off your list.  You will also notice the impact this is having on all your other tasks.

How about you? Are you one who multi tasks but takes a long time to complete that one “must do” task?