Beverley East, Contributor

I am often asked "Do you ever sleep?" Yes, of course I do, I answer proudly. My secret is that I multitask.

On any given day, I could be writing an article, cooking dinner, answering text messages or responding to phone calls. It has become a way of life. When I sit in airports I am reading, or drafting speeches. When I am stuck in traffic I return phone calls to distract my annoyance at the wait and confusion ahead of me. Raise your hand if you can relate. That's if you have a free hand to do so. But, is every-thing really getting done in the satisfactory manner it should be?

Finishing your tasks

Can some tasks wait until you have finished the first one or are we just living in such a 'now' world that nothing can wait? I've just checked my email and taken a call while writing these few lines. Then I had to stop to take my son to school. Then he calls me back "Did I leave my phone in the car?" and so it goes on. We still have to navigate our way through the chaos of our family and friends along with our co-workers, but how effective are we really?

I am a multitask person, however, over the past few months, I have been trying to cut back on my schedule. It is a promise I made to myself because sometimes when we are so distracted, we are really not being as productive as we should be or being polite and attentive.

The word multitask is supposed to refer to computers that have more than one window open and running at the same time. But now, it is much more frequently used to describe what we do. We have gadgets that allow us to surreptitiously do things while doing other things, and maybe we should have been paying attention to what our partners or our children were saying to us.

Build-up of extra work

Corporations continue to downsize and in doing so, employees are left with the extra work and no extra pay, and so we become the masters of juggling several balls at once - but are we really being as productive as we should be?

According to a survey done for the magazine Scientific American Mind, 90 per cent of American adults are multitasking, yet 57 per cent said that despite being busier than ever, they feel like they get less done. (More than 1,000 people were polled).

Unlike computers, which welcome multiple pieces of information coming in at the same time, our brains are not wired to handle all that simultaneous information too well. In your brain, it's more like channel surfing. You can focus on one thing at a time according to the above-mentioned magazine.

What I have experienced from my years as a consultant is that most workers feel overwhelmed when they multitask, which adds to their stress level and feelings of uncertainty, especially if they are really doing a good job. Perhaps, some folks are catching on to the fact that multitasking is not such an easy thing for us to accomplish.

When I returned to Washington, DC, after my sojourn in Jamaica, new laws had been passed in the state banning all cellphone use without a head set while driving. This I was pleased wit I only figured it out after I was stopped and given a $100 ticket. Cellphone talkers are my pet peeve as too many people are on the cellphone and are distracted rather than concentrating on the road. There should be a law against reading your book or newspaper while driving, putting on make-up and turning backwards to talk to the child in the back seat. My list is endless.

I believe things fall through the cracks when people are not paying attention! I grew up in a household where everyone was juggling several tasks at once. My sister would sing at the top of her voice while washing dishes, or learning her lines.

(She is an award-winning actress now). I would try to listen to the radio (TV was banned without supervision) and do my homework, sit on the phone with my girlfriends and do homework; sneak a call to my boyfriend and do homework. None of which were practical, sensible or fared me well. My mother, while on the phone directing a client on how to get to our house, put drinking chocolate on the chicken instead of curry powder. So pay attention! Leave as many tasks to the computer which can be far more efficient than we can. Some mistakes because of the rush of multitasking can cost companies millions of lost dollars.

Manage that exploding inbox

It's one of those issues that everyone complains about - 'my email Inbox has 500 items.'

The retort draws a quick response - 'Oh yeah, that's nothing ... mine has 5,000!' Email explosion is one of the favourite things that Caribbean professionals across the region bemoan, but feel they can do little about.

The weird rules of creativity

Hire people you don't like, then promote them when they defy you.

Wholeheartedly commit to risky projects. Get your happiest workers arguing. And keep your innovators away from customers. Recipes for disaster?

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