insight

April 25, 2018

No Such Thing as Multitasking

Doing2Things at Once

It’s really a made-up phrase.  In my mind, I’ve come to the realization I simply cannot do it. (I’m pretty sure those of you who are reading this can’t either, no matter how much you think you can.)

Multitasking?  Nah.  Sometimes we can do multiple things in a really fast sequence, but when we try to do two jobs at one time neither typically gets the proper attention.   

How well do you think this guy's "multi-tasking" is going?

The other night I was listening to the news, while trying to do something else I’m sure, and I heard a statistic – Pedestrian Traffic Deaths are at a 25 Year High in the United States. The anchor stated marijuana has something to do with the increase, but even bigger is the impact of texting and walking.  These experts took all the fun out of texting and driving and now they don’t even want us to text and walk.

That’s because it’s not safe.  You can’t do two things – especially like that – at once.

Watch4The Lessons

They are simple really. One is for advertisers and the other is for people engaged in any kind of business.

1) Your advertising had better interrupt because, if you’re lucky, people are only halfway paying attention to start.  Grab their attention first and then try to begin the process of winning over their hearts and minds.

2) Focus on one thing at a time when the one thing is something that requires your attention.  Sometimes you can walk and chew gum (or text), but when your mind needs to be engaged it is best to absolutely do one thing at a time.  Otherwise you’ll end up doing neither particularly well.

They say advertising isn’t life and death.  Generally that’s true, though even that can depend on what multitasking duties you marketing and business people are trying to accomplish.  Focus completely instead. You will be better at most everything you do.

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