We are in a fantastic age.
Unlike the past centuries, our heroes aren’t generals, revolutionaries, statesmen, politicians, scientists, editors, doctors or writers (to an extent). Today pop stars, rock bands, actors, sportsmen, businessmen and CEOs have taken their place.
Our adulation, concern and awe is reserved for these new champions of the new world. As expected, folk lore has grown based on such individuals.
Like the Rapper who lived a life of crime, selling drugs and finally finds real meaning in his life when he starts rapping after a new-death encounter. The CEO who fought rules, regulations, an old guard, unknown credentials etc to lead a dying organization to a phoenix like re-birth. The PE fund manager who lives on coffee and sleeps 3 hours a day. The Investment Banker who makes a 100 million $ a month and still finds time to train for the Iron Man. The dyslexia or ADHD afflicted entrepreneur who makes a billion dollars by establishing a technology company. The sports star who has been training for 6 hours a day since the age of 4.
Just like every folk lore and story that exists about larger than life figures, there exist a number of facts and details which are often misrepresented. One of the biggest issues is the portrayal of these heroes with an almost maniacal dependence and skill using multi-tasking.
Before I go any further I would like to underline the difference between what is assumed as multi-tasking and what it really means.
Most people look at multi-tasking as a form of virtue which is usually associated with qualities of flexibility, high IQ, street smartness, focus and great resourcefulness.
My qualitative assessment of the above is that what people really know about Multi-tasking may be encapsulated in one word.
Bullshit
What multi-tasking really means in today’s context is to be able to develop a reputation and presumed super-human ability of doing multiple tasks at 100% efficiency without sacrificing the quality of end result.
As the above statement infers, the actual execution of multi-tasking is humanly impossible and is done so at the expense of details and quality.
However, the ‘appearance’ of multi-tasking has become as essential quality for would be CEOs, Bosses, Entrepreneurs, Consultants and great thinkers.
Why?
Because general wisdom now states that this ability to multi-task is an essential skill to handle complex and comprehensive activities, operations and teams.
This disconnect between what is required/portrayed and what is really done, has lead millions of entrepreneurs handling businesses and their time in the most inefficient way possible, while ensuring a perpetual lack of sleep.
Below are 10 reasons why and how Multi-tasking does more harm than good
1. The Devil and the Details – Remember how the US power pointed over the issues of IRAQ war and its aftermath. If the most well resourced government messes up on the details and suffers the deaths of thousands of soldiers, a huge debt and image issues, then startups fall in this trap all the time. Recent history is littered with startups falling by the wayside simply because their business models and operations were based on assumptions which did not cater to details. A part of problem has to do with investors and entrepreneurs not putting in the time required to come up with a solid business model.
2. The Team – Nothing is most damaging for a team than to be made up of individuals who make decisions and execute activities, based on the surface details of an issue. For a young, inexperienced team, with no great gut instincts to talk about (since that is made up of experience too), it is imperative that a lot of attention is paid to various details.
3. The Customer – Ever sat across someone in office who claims to be there to serve you but is instead answering mails on his blackberry? What does that do to your confidence in him? We think we can suddenly turn off our instinct to multi-task when we meet someone important but we just can’t. And then we lose a customer because they will turn-off the moment they feel that you or your organization’s focus if not 100% meant for them.
4. Decreased Productivity – A cursory search on Google will throw up study upon study which proves how multi-tasking decreases productivity.
5. Lack of Patience/Planning – Patience, perseverance and planning are the 3 Ps of a successful entrepreneur (Sorry for this, I hate this concept of 7Ps, 9Ss, 43Ds etc but I just couldn’t help it). All these qualities run contrary to multi-tasking as it programmes the mind to short bursts of work and activity. It’s like asking a 100 meter sprinter to compete and win a marathon… at the Olympics
6. Creative Solutions/Innovations – Will never happen when the mind is occupied by a million different things in the present and an equal number of things for the future. This ability needs time and some free RAM in the mind. Multi-taskers are bad creative thinkers because their minds are always busy with the ‘next’ activity or are processing parallel streams of info while the body is being ordered to work in sync.
7. The ‘Always On’ Tech – Smartphones, twitter, FB Apps, emails etc have made sure that we are always connected and hence are always expected to respond… right then and there. This ensures that the mind undergoes constant interruptions during a particular stream of thought. Coupled it with a mind which is trained to multi-task and we ensure that nothing of any importance ever gets done.
8. Unable to live in the Moment – Bad for you and bad for your team. It means you and your team will stop having fun and hence interest in the job at hand will fall. More than employee disenchantment, frustration and lack of engagement, this leads to stress. Basically a multi-tasking environment may lead to higher attrition and even health issues.
9. Eyes off the ball syndrome – Every Startup has at max 3 critical issues which it must tackle from a med to long term perspective. A Social Network knows that building and partnering for exciting apps, creating scalable infra and building a sustainable revenue model are its main ‘balls’. However, multitasking means that the management and the entrepreneur may take their eyes of the ball at various times leading to short-term decisions and activities which lead to long term problems.
10. Sleep/Chilling – You need it. You aren’t superman. And if you can look back at your day and remember large chunks of work done by you, you will sleep better and also find more time to do it. Most white collar workers have an issue with this because on looking back at their day, they realise that nothing of great importance has been achieved. Which really is a fact. And a pity.
What Multi-tasking really should mean
1. Flexibility – To handle various major issues, events and problems as and when they arise and become critical.
2. Multi-Skills and not Multi-Activity – To possess the ‘ability’ to do various things satisfactorily and to use this ‘ability’ sparingly.
3. Zoning In and Zoning out – To focus on what is important and leave the rest behind.
4. Dealing with chaos – To deal with chaos by singling out the important variables to control and handle. One can only deal with chaos when one has a calm and clear mind devoid of the need to act on multiple things at the same time.
5. Execution/End Results – To work so that the end results are fantastic and not based on our perception on what is efficient. To talk on the phone and write an email may ‘seem’ efficient. But if this means that the customer on the other end of the phone is left unhappy and our email is badly worded with lots of typos, then the end results do not justify multi-tasking.
My Conclusion
An entrepreneur must realise that his/her team and partners will be taking cues from his/her own behaviour on how they handle work. While inculcating a sense of being able to do various things and developing various and disparate solutions is a healthy and essential feature to create teams for the future, entrepreneurs would not like to have a team of professionals who shift from one job to another, form one idea to the next almost simultaneously in the name of productivity.
We must realise that our definition of ‘productivity’ is extremely short term and shallow. For me a productive team is one which can consistently come up with well thought out, detail oriented results even if they do so once a month. A productive team is NOT one which can turn up with mediocre results on a daily basis.
We must start demanding excellence in a few things and not being average in many. This demand must be made not just of our team but also of ourselves.
For startups this detail oriented approach may be a great way of doing things since post funding scalability depends on a great fundamentally sound product, well thought out and allocated resources and an almost obsessive focus on building amazing aka wow iterations of your product/service.
This, in my view, can only be achieved when we stop multi-tasking and start focusing on the details (without getting caught in the paralysis of analysis).
Startup Yapper 
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