Multitasking is not for everyone

I am extremely impatient, did I ever mention that ? And therefore I have been there over and over again: Pushing task after task into my own organization. (Especially) Senior Management is not getting tired of this practice and somehow still get the feeling that nothing is getting finished.

Let me give you a short example what happens if you do everything in parallel:

Do I need to explain this illustration ? I think you get my point.

Here are my Top Motivators why you should be re-looking into Multi-Tasking:

Hyper-Focus: If I have learned one thing in the last 12 months, it is Hyper-Focus. By concentrating all my efforts into one single thing, I am actually able to get things done

Reduce Context-Switching: Sometimes, Context-Switching is good and relevant, but in most cases it creates extra effort because every time you hop on another project or task you need to re-look into where you bounced off.

Get finished earlier! By focusing on smaller items, it gets easier to see results faster and reduce the risk of dragging wrong assumptions/ errors etc. further down the timeline. With this practice you also reduce waiting time and remove bottle necks

Get into the Flow: Did you ever experience the perfect (Work-)Flow - this happens when there is just enough work so people are engaged but not too much work so it starts to produce chaos.

This practice is called Limiting Work in Progress. It comes out of the KANBAN Methodology. Let me give you an easy example that shows you what I am talking about (Think Starbucks)

Setting Work in Progress Limits (WIPs)

Imagine you work in a Coffee Shop and there is a long line of people waiting to order Coffee. But you only have one coffee machine in place and a limited space for people going in & out. Your team has realized that when too many coffee orders are in the Order Intake stage, it creates chaos. The baristas start feeling overwhelmed, and drinks take longer to prepare, leading to unhappy customers. To solve this problem, you introduce a WIP limit.

You have three steps to prepare the coffee:

Order Intake

Coffee Prep

Coffee Pick Up

The first and the third step don’t have any Work in Progress Limits - the poor Barista though can only prepare 3 coffees at the same time. Therefore you are setting a Work in Progress Limit of 3 at ‘Coffee Prep’

What Happens With the WIP Limit:

Let’s say the barista has already reached the WIP limit of 3 in the Coffee Prep column. A new order comes in, but they can’t start preparing it yet because they are already working on 3 coffees.

Before a new order can move from Order Intake to Coffee Prep, at least one coffee must be completed and moved to Ready for Pickup.

Does this all sound familiar to you ? I am sure you getting creative such as adding another coffee machine. A smart move to make as long as the overall flow is managed. Are you sure it is business case wise to add another coffee machine ? Will it have the same utilization as the other one ? You see, many questions that should be answered before Scaling, Adding Manpower, Adding Tasks & Projects or simply: Pushing your organization.