The phone rings. It's Mom. Homework needs to get done before family home evening and dinner is almost ready. What comes first?
Dave Crenshaw, a BYU alumni, suggests throwing out the myth of multitasking and getting priorities straight. At a Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum, Crenshaw presented new ideas about multitasking Thursday for the business community.
"Multitasking is worse than a lie," Crenshaw said.
Crenshaw, president of Fresh Juice Strategy, coaches business owners about time management and getting work done.
He asked the audience, about 50 business professionals, what they would do with extra time in their day. Many talked about sleeping, spending time with family and watching a movie. The problem was always not having enough time.
"Who is to blame for this?" Crenshaw said. "Interruptions."
In a time where the Internet, voicemail and random events in life take much of people's time, it becomes important to decide what comes first, he said. Usually, the catchphrase "multitasking" comes up. Crenshaw said to forget about that.
When multitasking, there is a "switching cost," he said. When people are trying to go back and forth from activity to activity, the switching cost is time spent, effectiveness and concentration.
"I actually agree with him," said Tim Hunt, a forum board member who attended the speech. "I don't believe in multi-tasking, I never have."
To illustrate the ineffectiveness of multitasking, Crenshaw asked two members of the audience to test their multitasking abilities. Audience members wrote down the alphabet and numbers one by one, switching up the order (A1, B2, C3, etc). This test took about 60 seconds to complete, and the test takers said they got stressed. The second test was to write down the entire alphabet first and then write the numbers 1-26 separately (a,b,c, etc. and 123, etc). This last test took half the time and the test takers said it was easier.
Crenshaw said when people are going back and forth between things, time and stress are added to the task. He suggested three tips for reducing problems with time management and being more effective:
- Set a schedule
"Give people a clear when," Crenshaw said. Set up meeting times and clear appointments to reduce interruptions.
- Voicemail expectation
The world is in a "culture of now," Crenshaw said. "People can wait."
Setting up times to check voicemail and calling people back is more effective than checking it regularly and immediately returning calls.
"You have more control over time than you think you do," he said.
- Silence
"You can shut off your cell phone you know," Crenshaw said.
Crenshaw suggested doing things one by one. This gives more quality to whatever is being done, he said.
"I never thought of it that way," said Jack Shirts, a Pilmer PR employee who attended the event. "Now it's just putting it to work."
Crenshaw directed his talk for the business industry but said his tips could work for college students as well. If doing homework while watching TV, Crenshaw suggested focusing on what matters at the time.
"One of them has to lose," he said.
