motion studies comparing the output of people who con-
centrated single-mindedly vs. the output of people who
went back and forth on a task, going away and returning to
that task many times in the course of task completion. What
these studies found was that each time you put down a task
and turn to something else, you lose momentum and
rhythm, and you lose track of where you were in doing that
job. When you come back to the task, you have no choice
but to review your previous work, catch up to the point
where you were when you broke off, and then begin again.
This process turns out to require as much as 500 percent of
the amount of time otherwise necessary to complete a task
if you had started with it and stayed with it until it was 100
percent complete.
In simple terms, single-handling can reduce the time
you spend completing an important task by as much as 80
percent, and dramatically increase the quality of the fin-
ished work.
Avoid Multitasking
There is a good deal of argument today over the concept of
multitasking. Some people feel that they are quite capable of
performing at high levels of productivity while they are
working on several tasks at once. The studies have now
proven that this idea is totally false.
What the experts have discovered is that multitasking is
actually “task-shifting.” The fact is that you can only do one
thing at a time. If you stop doing one task to turn to another
64 TIME MANAGEMENT