You often hear about folks praising those who multi-task. I mean why just do one thing when you can do two or more things in the same amount of time?

That’s true only in certain cases. The tips above are perfect examples: You can certainly make out a grocery list or a to do list while watching TV. And you can certainly do some reading (or listen to digital books) while doing things like driving. Waiting for an appointment or exercising.

However, multi-tasking doesn’t work very well when you’re trying to do two tasks that use the same resources.

Example: You can’t write a report and write an email at the same time.

Think about it: You’re writing an email. Then you turn your attention to your report. You have to now read the last few paragraphs that you created previously to reorient yourself to the task. You write a page of your report and then go back to your email. Now you spend a minute rereading the email so you can recall your previous train of thought.

And so on.

Point is, you’ll spend more time just going over your previous work again and again to help you refresh your memory and reorient yourself to the task. And that wastes time.

There’s a better way: Single-task. Focus on one thing at a time. Finish that one thing. And then turn your full attention to something else.