The woes of multi tasking in project management
You know those times when you forget what you are supposed to be doing because people keep dropping in on your unexpectedly and various pieces of technology keep beeping at you ceaselessly throughout the day? Not to mention the pens, post-it notes, and ornery chickens flying around your office?
Oh. Maybe it’s just me.
The relevancy of multi tasking to project managers has never been more so. Now we have additional online services and mobile devices to deal with. What I wrote about back in January 2007 about Multi-tasking, Covey, and TOC is even more applicable now. Your project schedule should drive priorities, not a false sense of urgency in adhoc daily tasks.
photo via Flickr by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
Raven blogged about this yesterday and embedded a video, the same one I’m embedding below. (If you don’t know about Raven’s Brain, you NEED to check it out. It’s kind of noodley and gooey, but well worth it!)
Weapons of Mass Distraction
As project managers, I feel it’s our duty to protect our staff from bad multi tasking.
Don’t expect your project team to be waiting for your email or IM and respond immediately. They have work to do. Encourage them and everyone else to only check email a few times a day, on a scheduled basis. Send them instructions to turn off the “auto-notification” sound/box whenever they receive a new email. For goodness sake, let them focus on their work! This goes for remote staff too!
Don’t wander around and interrupt people. I work with people who have no regard for this whatsoever. They’ll assume they can interrupt a discussion or pull someone off a focused task. It’s arrogant, annoying and a time waste because people have to switch gears. If you need to talk with someone, ask their permission before launching into a conversation. If I walk over and someone is in a discussion, I keep walking unless what I have is truly urgent and important. If they are engrossed in a project task, I’ll say something like “Hey John, could you stop by when you get to a good stopping point? No rush.” if I need to speak with them. This way they only have a minor interruption and can get re-focused rather quickly.
Lead focused and short project meetings. If everyone is not fully engaged in the meeting, then you are losing most of the value for them being there. Keep the pace fast and focused, and make sure only the right people are invited. If someone is distracting themselves, help them get engaged in the meeting by asking them direct questions about the topic at hand. Even better, as a part of your project meeting ground rules, outlaw all communication methods (IM, email, Twitter, texting, etc.) besides being engaged in the meeting.
Check out the video below, it’s funny because it’s mostly true!
May 15th, 2009 at 7:12 am
Hi Josh,
I for one do not differentiate between “bad” and “good” multi-tasking.
Speaking for myself, there are only three times I have EVER seen “successful” multi-tasking:
1) Jugglers in the circus;
2) Lawyers being able to bill more than one client for doing the same work, and;
3)Reading a book or newspaper while on the toilet.
Now, my wife is a TOTALLY random person…… think in the same league with Jennifer Anniston in “Come Along Polly”- and I could never figure out how she could be a SCIENCE teacher, until I realized that while it may APPEAR as though she is multi-tasking, as like the juggler, she may have 5 or 6 things going on simultaneously, when you watch carefully, she does only one thing at a time, just not in the sequence one would think efficient……
Bottom line- IMPO, true multi-tasking is a management fantasy that only people who live in Dilbert’s world could possibly even consider.
BR,
Dr. PDG, enjoying a pleasant Friday evening in Jakarta
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Josh Nankivel Reply:
May 16th, 2009 at 4:57 am
Good points Dr. PDG.
It’s probably just a matter of definitions…”good” multi-tasking could be seen by many to not really be multi-tasking at all. For instance, if you get to a point on a task where you have a mental block and find it difficult to continue, switching to something else can be refreshing and more productive.
The only reason someone might call this multi-tasking still is because the original task has been left unfinished.
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Dr. Paul D. Giammalvo Reply:
May 16th, 2009 at 9:48 am
Well, isn’t that exactly what happened in the video? In reality aside from eating the banana, nothing was actually being done simultaneously. Many things had been started and there were a lot of balls in the air, but nothing actually got done.
Which brings us back to the original…… Multi-tasking is a farce…… a joke…… an illusion, at least in the real world of working…..
But I do love my toilet reading and sure wish I could bill more than one client for doing the same work……
Hey, I just realized I do that!!! I prepare one set of powerpoint and present it to many classes several times over….. Wow, now I am in the same league as the lawyers……
Whoa….
Be careful what you wish for….. It may just come true…..
Good night from Jakarta…..
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Josh Nankivel Reply:
May 16th, 2009 at 10:23 am
Too funny!
Maybe this is a good distinction, tell me what you think.
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Dr. Paul D. Giammalvo Reply:
May 16th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
Ya, I think the example of IM or email while in a meeting can best be answered by ratcheting it up a notch and asking what happens if we IM or email while driving a car…… Or even ratcheting it down a notch and asking what happens when IMing or emailing while trying to WALK…… Nuff said?
And Task Switching, while undoubtedly more accurate simply does not have the cache to appeal to the Dilbert Management world.
Goooood Mooooorrrrrnnnninngg Jakarta
PDG
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Jennifer Bedell Reply:
May 18th, 2009 at 8:01 am
OK…I had to respond to this post with a simple example of what muti-tasking does to our focus.
While waiting for our food at a restaurant last evening, I was playing tic-tac-toe with both children at the same time. Yes, I was multi-tasking with my tic-tac-toe abilities.
My youngest daughter is 6 years old and it is very easy to win if I am paying attention. The 10-year-old puts a little more forethought into her moves so we usually end up with a stalemate.
I got over-confident and proceeded to play two separate games at the same time. I lost both games legitimately! My 6-year-old beat me at tic-tac-toe because my attention was divided between two tasks.
I thought about writing an entire post about this, but then noticed that the multi-tasking topic was already covered. Perhaps I should have read your article before I tried to play two games of tic-tac-toe simultaneously.
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May 15th, 2009 at 10:08 am
Twitter Comment
@pmstudent : Liked the multi tasking post and the video- funny. [link to post]
– Posted using Chat Catcher
May 15th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Meetings suck… well, at least the way most people hold them:
If those who hold meetings would only:
1, invite those who needed to be there,
2. hold them for only long enough for those who needed to be there to participate
3. hold them on time with no excuses, and
4. only hold them when something needed to be done rather than “the weekly project meeting”
Those people who were there, but only earmarked for 1/5 of the meeting would not feel compelled to make better use of their time during the period that they’re being ignored.
If you don’t follow these rules, and people are finding better ways to use their time than paying homage to your authority through non-stop attention even though you don’t really need them, they deserve a bonus rather than chastisement – they’re probably one of the reasons your project is on track (assuming, of course, that it is).
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Josh Nankivel Reply:
May 16th, 2009 at 5:04 am
Words of wisdom Steve! Also, the focused agenda is a key component, with a clear definition of the GOAL of the meeting. Are you there to make a decision? Is this informational? Brainstorming?
If one person thinks we are going to make a decision and no one else knows that is the goal, it can be a terrible waste of time.
You reminded me of a post I did a long time ago. Here’s a quote from that post (link) I’ve always liked:
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May 18th, 2009 at 4:56 am
[...] You can read Josh’s comments here [...]
May 18th, 2009 at 5:07 am
Twitter Comment
RT @pmstudent: #PMOT #pmp The woes of multi tasking in PM . Can we really multitask? Josh and others comment [link to post]
– Posted using Chat Catcher
May 18th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
The discussion seems to be presented as mostly black-or-white: to multi-task or not to multi-task. In fact, I think there are many shades of gray. For example, if I am sitting in a meeting that does not require my full attention, checking email on my BB or sending a text message could be a very effective use of my time. Likewise, doing all my emails in one or two blocks each day may not be efficient for either me or my correspondents. Staying focused on one task is also not always efficient. Our hind-brains do a lot of thinking when we are not engaged, and sometimes switching between tasks allows our brains to problem-solve more effectively. I don’t remember the source (maybe BusinessWeek?), but I read some research recently that showed that some forms of distraction do, in fact, make us more productive.
Duncan
William R. Duncan, Project Management Partners
Primary author of the original version of “A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge”
Board Chair, PMCert, the independent certification body of asapm
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Josh Nankivel Reply:
May 18th, 2009 at 8:27 pm
I see what you are saying Bill, and it’s a good point. Nearly nothing is black and white.
I disagree that checking email on your BB in a meeting is a good use of time though. I have a fairly hard and fast rule on that kind of thing.
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Bill Duncan Reply:
May 19th, 2009 at 10:08 am
Josh — please don’t ignore my qualifier … “a meeting that doesn’t require my full attention.” Rather than establishing a rule, I try to run my meetings so that this doesn’t come up.
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May 18th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
Agree that the need depends on the situation. For example during a live it is key to be able to multi-task. However there are also times when quiet focus is needed to get the job done. The key is to find the right level of focus for the job at hand.
Good Post!
Anticlue
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May 19th, 2009 at 8:23 pm
Josh – Great discussion! You wrote the post I wish I could have. “They have work to do” — that’s an understatement!
We were have a discusion at my house about the interruption of flow (related to your second paragraph) when my partner, a director of technology, told me that her manager, a VP, had just chided her for not being on instant messenger that morning (“I didn’t know if you were even in the office..”). Seriously!
If we were a bunch of sixth graders it’d be humorous. Considering this is supposed to be how business gets done, it’s pretty sad we need to write basic tips like “don’t interrupt people when they’re working” or “How about you go see if someone is actually IN their office instead of assuming they’re OOF because their messenger icon shows them offline”. Ridiculous.
-R
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Josh Nankivel Reply:
May 19th, 2009 at 8:42 pm
Raven, thanks for inspiring the post in the first place!
I know exactly what you are talking about! IM can be great, but it can also be a curse. It’s important for managers to manage their people by results, not by whether they are available at any moment for the whims of their management.
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Jun 11th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
Josh,
Nice piece. I wrote a more lengthy discussion on the impact of multi-tasking on my blog a couple of years ago. My definition of multi-tasking is quite simple, it is: “stopping a task to do something else before the task is finished”. By finished I mean to the point where it logically has to wait for something else to be continued or it is passed off to someone else.
Most of the focus of the discussions and writings on multitasking centers around the impact it has on an individual performing a task. While I don’t disagree at all with these issues, what Goldratt and TOC have shown is that the most damaging impact is at the system level. In other words how much it delays projects and pipelines as a whole. This is the subject of my piece on multi-tasking and in my experience it is one of the biggest culprits delaying projects.
Thanks for recognizing the dangers of this ubiquitous, often celebrated behavior.
Kevin
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Sep 9th, 2009 at 8:40 pm
Very nice clip! I won’t blame multitasking as sth to be always avoided. For instance, while driving (attending cells/eating banana/taking drinks), communicating and even in prayers one should not do multitasking. But as Dr Paul has highlighted the case of toilet, it is good usage of time. I normally practice from my wrong answers of PMP prep exams by enhancing my vocab just to maintain flavor of CHANGE. I think as long as u feel good, multitaking is good. One shoud have a right sense of when it’s going wrong.
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Josh Nankivel Reply:
September 9th, 2009 at 8:58 pm
A fair point Imran. When multitasking is not using the same parts of the brain simultaneously, perhaps it can work.
I’d argue against the “as long as u feel good” hypotheis however. “Explorers” feel good when multitasking, even if it’s less productive and even harmful to their long-term cognitive abilities. See this for more info:
Do Your Project Teams Suffer From Chronic Media Multitasking?
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