Focus on a single task

For those of you who are bad at multi-tasking — rejoice! You shouldn’t be doing it anyway.

In Velsoft’s course, Getting Stuff Done — Personal Development Boot Camp, learners are advised to stop multi-tasking and concentrate on a single task:

“We think that Henry Ford said it best: ‘A weakness of all human beings is trying to do too many things at once.’ When you are doing two or three things at once, you’re not focused 100 per cent on each task – you’re only giving 50 per cent or 33 per cent to each task. With a good information management system, you will be able to decide which task is most important, focus on it 100 per cent, complete it, and then move onto the next project.”

Today is Single Tasking Day, and according to Daysoftheyear.com, multi-tasking often leads to a heap of half-finished tasks or ones that are finished but not in their best form. “Single Tasking Day is a day to get things done, one at a time.”

However, this doesn’t mean only a single task can be completed each day. It means taking one task at a time, focusing solely on it, and completing it thoroughly and to the best of your ability. Then, you can move on to another project or undertaking.

Single task emphasis

• “To do two things at once is to do neither.” — Publilius Syrus
• “If you chase two rabbits, you will catch neither one.” — Russian proverb
• “You can do two things at once, but you can’t focus effectively on two things at once.” — Gary Keller, author of The One Thing
• “Multi-tasking is merely the opportunity to screw up more than one thing at a time.” — Gary Keller
• “When we think we’re multi-tasking we’re actually multi-switching. That is what the brain is very good at doing – quickly diverting its attention from one place to the next. We think we’re being productive. We are, indeed, being busy. But in reality we’re simply giving ourselves extra work.” — Michael Harris, writer
• “Multi-tasking is great in the kitchen when you are trying to time the chicken to be ready at the same time as the potatoes. But do not assume it is a great way to manage a workday.” — Joanne Tombrakos, writer
• “Multi-tasking the art of doing twice as much as you should half as well as you could.” — Anonymous
• “Most of the work on multi-tasking suggests that it generally makes you less efficient, not more.” — James Surowiecki
• “Multi-tasking divides your attention and leads to confusion and weakened focus.” — Deepak Chopra

What’s in the Pipeline

• Jan is working on CA course components and eLearning QA.
• Carol is editing courses, and editing custom projects.
• Sydney is creating custom eLearning courses and working on custom projects.
• Dylan is creating graphics for custom and internal customers.
• Ben is working on custom projects.

Course Count

Courses released this month:

Fostering Innovation

Online Tools for Small Business

Here is the official count of courses for both courseware and eLearning: