In today’s fast paced world, everyone is being asked to do more with less. Gone are the days when there would be enough resources to get the job done in a comfortable manner. Now we keep finding ways to add on more work to people and cut back on the number of people doing the work.
At first glance you could look at anyone who has had to take on more work because of the shrinking workforce and you would say that they’re really doing a great job multi-tasking.
Is anyone really multi-tasking though? I would argue that we are not. Although it feels like we have too many things to get done on any given day and yet we still find a way to get it done, we are still only focusing on the task at hand.
Think of a variety show (for those of you too young to remember variety shows go to YouTube on the inter-webs and look up Ed Sullivan or Carol Burnett) that features a plate spinner. The person spinning the plates certainly has his/her hands full. They are keeping more plates spinning than I have in my kitchen cupboard. They are the perfect metaphor for how we are living our professional (and personal) lives right now. I would guess that if you ask people if they sometimes felt like a plate spinner they would reply in the positive.
Here’s where we can see how people truly “multi-task.” We aren’t actually focused on all of the plates at any given time. We get a plate spinning (kick off a project, upgrade, etc.) and then we move on to the next plate. We get that one spinning and move on to the next one.
When we get the third plate spinning we probably have to go back to the first one and make sure it is still spinning enough to allow us to get the next one started. The more plates we get spinning, the less time (obviously) we have to dedicate to any single plate. Does this sound familiar to anyone? If not, please contact me, I’d like your job.
What I just described works well for anyone who chooses to spin plates as their profession. The process to keep a plate spinning is pretty straight-forward.
1. Is the plate about to fall? If no, ignore. If yes, go to step 2
2. Spin plate
There’s not thinking about what the next step is when you look at a plate and realize it is going to fall. You just spin it to get it going again.
Most projects/assignments at work are not that simple. Stepping away to focus on something else means having to come back and remember where you left off so you can continue to work on it. The time to remember where you were and what your thought process was can be substantial. Now, not only are we not multi-tasking, we’re losing efficiency every time we stop to “spin another plate.”
The loss of efficiency is not the only thing to be concerned about in our new world. There’s also the issue of being able to focus on an issue and working it to completion. I used to be able to spend time on a book, or an issue at work until I completed the task.
Now, the constant barrage of multiple responsibilities and the different ways I can be distracted makes me feel like I’ve got ADD. In the time I’ve taken to write this all down I’ve looked at email, updated my Facebook status, checked out Amazon.com for the latest geeky toy that I need, and programmed my DVR so I don’t miss “When Kittens Attack – Part IV.”
For now we will continue to do more with less, but I’m curious to see what the future holds, and how fragmented our lives become.
Now, I have to go clean up the plates that I dropped.
