Single Tasking and Productivity – Part 5

Single Tasking and Productivity – Part 5

For the final installment of the series from focusmanifesto.com learn about mulit-projecting.

There’s a distinction between tasks and projects that should be made in any discussion of multitasking. Doing multiple tasks at the same time is less effective than single-tasking. However, doing multiple projects at once is sometimes more effective than only one project at once.

Sometimes it’s necessary to work on multiple projects. Even if you are in complete control of your work, which is not true for many people. If you only work on one project at once, often you are held up because you’re waiting for somebody to do a task or reply to you with the necessary information. What happens then? Or what happens if you’re collaborating on a project but while someone else is doing their part, you don’t have much to do? In these cases, it would probably be a waste of your time if you just waited, and worked on nothing else.

So multi-projecting can work. You get one project going, but while you’re waiting on something, you can switch to a second or even third project. All the time, you’re only working on one task at a time, until each task is done, however.

Do note that there’s a danger in taking on too many projects at once. I’d suggest taking on as few projects as possible. If you can do only one project at a time, without getting stuck in waiting, then do that. It’s much more effective and you’ll get your projects done much faster. But when you must wait, you can switch to a second project. Again, work on as few at a time as you can get away with.