Personally, It feels like I’m multi-tasking my entire life.
I know I am not the only one out there. (or I hope I’m not) As women we do our best to do it all (cause we are awesome!), but sometimes…we just take on too much. Especially entrepreneurs and work at home professionals. It’s hard not to really, always looking for that next idea, keep multiple streams of income coming in, keep our personal lives and relationships in tact…for many take care of a family, get everyone where they need to be….and I keep hearing about this thing called sleep that is apparently good for us once in a while.
This is the hard part.. to choose, tell people you can’t or feel like you aren’t successful because you can’t do it all (talk about an ego blow for superwoman) but the truth is…you shouldnt multi-task everything you do. It jsut isn’t fair to anyone involved. I feel like woman in today’s world often feel like we HAVE to do it all, we constantly fight for equal rights, equal pay, equality in anything and everything because the truth is it really ISN’T equal …at least not yet, but we are getting there. So as a result we want to do anything we can to try and prove ourselves, to show everyone we really can do it all!
Just because we CAN do everything doesn’t mean we SHOULD do everything.
FOCUS. Doing a few things really well…rather then a thousand things halfway, is a lot more effective and will get you further.
I wear my cape with pride and want to succeed at being super wife, mom, biz owner, etc.. The truth is every super hero needs time to recharge and needs to take a step back once in a while. Even superwoman can’t be everywhere at the same time…she has to choose her tasks wisely so she can save the world in the most efficient and effective way 🙂
What do you think?
Ashley Nialetz
Ashley Nialetz is a Social Media Consultant and Virtual Assistant through her company www.FatPugTech.com and recently www.Shuteit.com. She is also a wife, mom of two, caffeine addict, customer service pro and superhero by night. She loves working with other women looking to start their own businesses and offers private mentoring programs. Prior to working in the in the virtual assistant world, she had 10+ years of experience in customer service and administrative management roles.
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A lot of good thoughts here, Ashley!
As a Recovering Perfectionist, I adopted the motto, “Dare to be Average!” Especially when too many roles converge, sometimes good enough is good enough. But there are exceptions (like work that will undergo public scrutiny) and I think your advice about, “Doing a few things really well…rather than a thousand things halfway,” is very valuable. Just as consultants will audit corporations to find efforts, even divisions, that are not *aligned* with the core mission, I’ve found that the FOCUS you refer to requires the question, “Will X help me get to my goal line?” If X is heading off in another direction, it will only rob valuable resources from what really matters.
My core mission is to focus on encouraging best practices online, working with social media, particularly online social networks, to reduce opportunities for cyber bullying and cyber hate. For now, I’m committing to another two year increment. I figure everything else can wait for two years (no child-rearing going on right now!) while I explore this problem from every conceivable angle. This “exploration,” as my role model urban theorist Jane Jacobs would label it, is so intriguing, multi-faceted, and absorbing that I can apply the litmus test to would-be competitors for my time or energy with both enthusiasm and the requisite ruthlessness!
Research shows that it takes approx 5 min to get your rhythm on something you start. When you multi-task and constantly switch from one task to another you are losing 5 min on every switchover, not to mention that the lack of focus on one task doesn’t do full justice to it.
it is even worse when you are not paying attention to someone you are talking to because your mind is already looking at the other task. This is an easy recipe to lose friends and customers.