One thing quickly

Multitasking doesn’t really exist. While many have figured out how to move quickly between tasks, it’s always one thing at a time. It’s a skillset to learn; moving quickly between things without becoming a perfectionist, but it also creates opportunities to do many things poorly because of the time it takes to context switch.

When possible try to focus on one thing at a time, and if something new pops up add it to a list that you’ll get to next. The memory bandwidth required to hold the opposing ideas necessarily means that nothing will be done with full attention.

The thing you’re likely best at, the thing you can do well and bring all your care to, can rarely be done when a dozen other tasks are calling for help at the same time.

If there’s numerous items all needing help, and the day seems impossibly short to meet their demands, then the items themselves may need to be trimmed. Either that or they’ll be forcibly modified without your choosing.

I’m better at this some days than others. Often at the end of the week I’m most scattered, but a reset helps to remind me what’s important and contextualize the urgent from the important.