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Multitasking: Does it boost performance ?

There have been varying opinions on the aspect of multitasking and yet there is no wrapping up on the issue as to how effective is multitasking in delivering performance results and subsequently in improving the business. A peek into the gallery of multitasking ventures will make you understand and let you decide whether you should take this up for yourself and for your employees.

The primary observations by psychogists as well as the practical experience have led us to believe that when you change your mental gears towards doing different tasks, it costs both energy and time and this is specifically with regard to less familiar tasks. When you are subjected to different kinds of tasks at a time, it swipes your energy and also may take more time. This alone should be left to computers which can perform multiple tasks at a single point of time. Human brain is still incapable to do so.

Imagine yourself to be in a situation when you are watching television while sitting at home, eating or drinking something and also talking to someone on telephone. You can be sure then that after 5 minutes or so, either you will drop down the telephone, switch off the TV or stop binging.

Now, this happens because of the diversion in the process of doing any work that you are most interested in. Even performing tasks at different timings i.e. one after the another too is not an easy one. This is so because when you are subjected to one particular task, you are thoroughly absorbed in it.

Perhaps, everyone of us do multitasking in our personal life, like our routine activities and performing household chores. But, there are limitations to doing several tasks and it is almost impossible to be perfect at all the tasks. You need to understand the mechanism by which multi-tasking can be performed. This mechanism underlines the process of attention-giving which operates by two modes serial processing or parallel processing.

The serial processing involves the shifting of focus from one thing to another, i.e. once a job is completed, another is started. While parallel processing involves the fluctuating of attention or focus between two tasks. The multitasking when applied to serial processing is effective because several important tasks in the order of priority can be done and when the same applies to parallel processing, many unrelated tasks can be discussed at one point of time.

Another demerit with multi-tasking is lot of mental stress and the chances of occurrence of too many or few errors.

But there are several benefits to multi-tasking and some of them are:

• It lets an organization to take work out by keeping a handful of employees and so the recruitment costs, other costs and expenses are minimized.
• The organization suffering from high attrition rate benefit by keeping the employees to multi-tasking.

What is the solution to curb the demerits of multi-tasking and take full advantage out of it?

• Be mindful: If you practice and fine-tune your skills to performing similar or dissimilar tasks, you surely will succeed at it. Your mind should work faster and better. Always be alert so that you don’t commit mistakes. The same applies to employer or entrepreneur who wants to get the work done from his employees. He should train his employees to adapt to different work areas.

• Reward employees: Once you have known that an employee is adept at performing many tasks, he should be rewarded. This will keep him motivated for long and also enable him to perform regularly.

• Schedule and organize tasks: It is very important to prioritize tasks so that the all the work taken up is done effectively. Do complete the work that is most important and then switch over to not so essential task. If the task is organized well, it can be handled well. The time should be properly divided between one or more tasks.

• Be patient and have persistence: The dogged determination can make you do anything. Also when you multi-task, it is necessary to be patient.

It has been noted that majority of the employees do not like to multi-task as it leads to high stress level and also the loss of memory. Other ailments may also be picked by the multi-tasker. So, it is best to limit the work to few areas rather than many areas or streams.

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