To Multitask or Not?

By: Amanda Sauceda, MS, RDN, CLT

Ahh multitasking, the one skill we honed in college. We balanced the hustle of school with the bustle of college life.

Lately, I have been wondering how much multitasking has been serving me. It’s been feeling like I’m an internet browser with 100 different tabs open.

A topic I have been hearing quite a bit about as a solution to multitasking is time blocking. Time blocking is the idea that you schedule out certain times in your day for specific activities. For example, answer emails from 8-9am, working on creating projects from 9-10am, etc. Or it might look like specific days get blocked out for specific tasks. Mondays can be creative projects or Tuesdays are bookkeeping days.

Before you even time block it is recommended that you time track. Take a day and write down what you do and at what times. Then use that tracking as way to guide you on how to best time block your day.

I haven’t time tracked my time yet or time blocked, it sounds so tedious, but I can see how eye opening it can be! (Anyone want to do motivational interviewing with me on this? LOL)

My tip is to take a look at different ways to move away from multitasking. While multitasking was a prized skill in college as an entrepreneur our time is precious and we want to maximize it as much as we can and multitasking simply isn’t the answer.

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Responses

Leave a Reply to Kristina L Hokenson

  1. I just started doing this and am by far not perfect (I get interrupted by my phone and then the time block gets overtaken) but I try again the next day. I will say when I have done it, I notice i get things done and I’m successful and checking off my to do’s!! Thank you for sharing!!

    1. Ok I still haven’t done this! I love the idea of this and feel like it would help to be more focused without feeling like I should be doing something else. Sounds like it’s working great for you!