Multitasking is an illusion.

CEO, Jason Gorman, bought some juggling balls to illustrate how multitasking is just an illusion.

Earlier in the year we purchased a couple of sets of juggling balls for our 2PM office. Partly as we believe that juggling is an important skill for ALL Project Managers, and ALL our team, and partly as I wanted to see how the bookkeeper would code and deal with the expenditure. Juggling can be relaxing and stress relieving – it takes your mind off other things! That said:

“Juggling is an illusion. … In reality, the balls are being independently caught and thrown in rapid succession. … It is actually task switching.” – Gary Keller*

The reality is that multitasking is a lie. People think they can multitask, but they can’t. We may be able to do multiple things at once, but we can’t focus on two things at once. Multitasking has been shown to be ineffective and inefficient.

“To do two things at once is to do neither.” – Publilius Syrus

It’s also important for us to remember:

“Things don’t matter equally. Success is found in doing what matters most.” – Gary Keller*

Many would be familiar with the Pareto principle. It states that “for many outcomes, roughly 80% of consequences (or benefits) come from 20% of causes (or initiatives)’’. What this essentially means, is that rather than trying to do too many things, it can be better to narrow our focus and do the 20% of initiatives that are most important.

But of course, identifying the most impactful 20% for you or your organisation can be incredibly confusing, when you’re in the midst of it!

This is why our Plan on a Page service is so powerful, and why we use it for our own 2PM Strategy days. From all the, say, 25+ things we *could* do, it reduces it to the five most important things that we should focus on for the year. And also, the things that we shouldn’t be focused on (the not-to-do list).

Want to learn more about our Plan on a Page (PoP) services? Click here!

*The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results.

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