Avoiding Common Multitasking Pitfalls

Virtual PBX technology offers companies a vast array of hosted service options to increase communication channels, unify them and streamline operations overall. But for the employees who man the helms of all these communication lines, multichannel means multitasking. And if it’s not approached correctly, that PBX investment that was meant to be productivity enhancing will have the exact opposite effect.

“If you are constantly shifting back and forth between tasks or allowing interruptions to determine what gets done, you are doing multitasking wrong,” explained small business advocate, radio show host and author Barry Moltz, in a Nextiva blog post. “This type of activity has been reported to cause as much as a 40 percent reduction in productivity. Not surprisingly, it also increases the incidents of mistakes and errors.”

So how can one truly multitask, rather than simply getting more things done poorly? The key lies in effective communications management. For instance, checking e-mail only two to four times a day is more productive then looking at each notification as it comes in.

“While people shouldn’t perform several tasks at once, they can manage several tasks at one time,” Moltz said. “Multitasking should be thought of as a system for being able to make quick decisions about the importance and sequence of tasks, and then proceeding to complete those focused tasks efficiently.”

A good first step is to prioritize. The to-do list can be a critical operational tool. Moltz advocates creating a short list of no more than five pressing things that need to be accomplished first. From there, make savvy decisions in terms of time management. For instance, can any of the items be done together? Is there a way to repurpose the work from one task to apply to another?

Also, avoiding starting and stopping different activities is crucial. So, taking communications in chunks, like making call-backs in one spate of time, scheduling conference calls back-to-back and setting aside specific timeslots for e-mail, can all significantly save time, Moltz said. This is also good advice considering that swiveling back and forth between disparate tasks requires the brain to recalibrate for each type of activity—translating into automatic inefficiency.

Hand in hand with the idea of grouping tasks together is the idea of focus. It’s wildly easy to get bogged down in the minutia of the day. But, one should aim to finish what’s been started before even thinking about something else.

“Complete the task at hand and don’t think of all the other things that need to get done,” Moltz said. “Block out all other interruptions. Everything should be on the prioritized to-do list and out of mind until the more important tasks are complete.”

And finally, small business users shouldn’t be afraid to delegate. There is a certain point where the to-do list will outstrip one’s capacity, even in the unlikely event that a person is working at 100 percent efficiency.

“It’s important to recognize as soon as you can’t do everything yourself,” Moltz said. “The best course of action is to delegate your tasks to employees and other outside resources.”

Edited by Alisen Downey