Assertiveness Training for Organized Living Lesson #4
Mutitasking Does Not Improve Personal Organization!

Assertiveness training for organized living lesson 4 explores the beliefs behind multitasking, productivity and persoanl organization. Organizing your life requires focusing on one thing not multitasking.

You have the right to focus on one task at a time.

Organizing your life does not mean adding more and more things into your life and trying to juggle them all in order to get everything done. You do not have to be a juggler to achieve organized living. In fact the opposite is true!

The Assertiveness Training Guide for Organized Living is suggesting that multitasking is actually counter productive to an personal organization.

Organized living is more about being able to focus on one thing at a time, without feeling like you are abdicating other responsibilities. This requires that you first believe in your right to give up multitasking and secondly, set priorities so that the most important things get done first.

Multitasking is a word that comes from the technology industry and was originally coined in order to describe a computer's ability to process different sets of information or commands at the same time, or what appears to be the same time. The computer looks like it is multitasking because it switches between tasks so quickly that it appears to be doing two things simultaneously. In fact the computer chip cannot process several sets of information or commands at the same time.

It turns out that the humans cannot process two sets of information at the same time either. Trying to multitask means that the human brain must constantly switch between information sets. Humans find this emotionally draining and intellectually confusing, with the result being stress and errors.

Humans and Multitasking

Although humans have the ability to multitask and have been doing so since the beginning of time (ask any mother!) this is only advisable if the two tasks are not making demands on the same area of the brain.

This means that you might be able to load the dishwasher while coaching your child with his math homework, because loading the dishwasher is somewhat of a mindless or automatic task (ask any mother!). However, if you tried to do your taxes while helping with your child's homework, both the teacher and the taxman might be displeased!

Research has shown that trying to process two sets of information through one part of the brain increases the probability of errors.

So what does this have to do with organized living?

Since improving your personal organization abilities and establishing organized living is really about getting and maintaining control, it becomes quite obvious that focusing on one thing at a time will allow you better control over the outcome.

Allowing yourself to focus your attention on one thing at a time will reduce errors and waste so you will actually be working more efficiently and saving time!

The Assertiveness Training Guide for Organized Living suggests the following constraining beliefs may be behind your efforts to multitask. Some positive attitude tips are offered to help you change your beliefs and assert your right to focus on one thing at a time.

constraining beliefs	Positive attitude tips
If do not take calls I will lose my customers or clients	I cannot be available 24 hours per day and most of my customers and clients do not expect me to be 50% of the time when customers call they expect to leave a message so I will let it go to voicemail
Taking a phone call is a high priority activity and the phone must be answered.	What I am doing right now is what I must give my attention to. There is a very good chance this phone call is less important than what I am doing anyway. If I can focus on what I am doing I will will feel that I have completed this job satisfactorily and can give my complete attention to the phone call when I return it.
I have so many things to do I need to do more than one thing at once in order to be productive.	If I try to multitask I will lose my concentration and be more likely to make errors and feel stressed. I will take my time and complete one task to an acceptable standard before moving on to the next task.
If I do not take calls from my family they will think I do not care about them.	If I do not take calls from my family they will know that I am busy doing something else that I want to concentrate on. If they need to leave me a message the voicemail will pick up.

Data from a recent study by ATT shows:

60% of all incoming calls are less important than the work they interrupt

only 20% of business messages are time sensitive

50% of all calls are for one-way transfers of information.

50% of all calls are longer than they need to be due to non-business chit chat.

The Assertiveness Training Guide for Organized Living offers the following tips for ending your multitasking habit and improving your personal organization.

Check your emails at the beginning and end of the day.

Designate specific times during your day when you will concentrate on completing tasks and not be interrupted. This goes for both your personal and work life. During these designated blocks of time let the phone go to voicemail, but make sure to turn off the ringer so you are not distracted by it, or set it up to go automatically to the voicemail option.

learn how to control those pesky email notifications that pop up to notify you have a new message. You can see all your new messages when you go to your email box at the designated time.

separate from your family at the beginning of the day and rejoice in seeing each other when you all come together again. You will have so much more to talk about at dinner if you are not talking on the phone to each other during the day

communicate the old fashioned way.....makes lists and leave notes for your family

use your answering machine to leave messages for your family. Many telephone systems now come equipped with a "memo" function especially for this purpose.

develop a check in system with your kids for after school so they can phone and leave a message that they are home safely...no need to pick up the phone

Read more about Positive Attitude Tips for Organized Living in the Assertiveness Training guide for Organized Living

Read more about Assertiveness

Go back to the Assertiveness Training guide for Organized Living lesson 1 - You have the right to an orderly life.

Go to the Assertiveness Training Guide for Organized Living Lesson #2. - You have the right to abandon responsibility for Other People's Stuff.

Go to Assertiveness Training Guide for Organized Living Lesson #3. You have the right to say no, and not have to apologize for doing so.