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Mono-task to become a better EMS leader

Learn the surprising discoveries of a mono-tasking challenge

Updated March 7, 2016

Does multitasking help or hinder our ability to lead? With this question in mind, I conducted a personal experiment in not multitasking.

Like most busy people, I try to squeeze the most out of every moment by attacking and reacting to multiple projects at once. I e-mail while on phone calls. I interrupt what I’m doing to check texts. I work while eating and exercising and make phone calls while driving.

Sure, I’d seen the reports and studies that claim multitasking is an efficiency myth, but I wasn’t a believer. While some brains may slow down when jumping from task to task, mine seemed to be doing well. And besides, how can catching up on e-mail while someone pontificates on a conference call not be efficient?

2-week break from multi-tasking
However, when a trusted mentor challenged me to take a two-week break from multitasking, I decided to give it a try. Here’s what I did:

  • I cleared the clutter from my desk and attempted to give my full attention to one project at a time.
  • I stopped carrying my cell phone into meetings.
  • I turned my cell phone completely off (not just on vibrate) when I was focused on a task or project.
  • I stopped doing e-mail and other tasks while on phone calls
  • I stopped doing work while I ate and exercised.

The experiment was tougher than I expected. Not multitasking felt painfully inefficient and a bit boring. I was like an addict deprived of his drugs; I had a desperate craving to fill what initially felt like empty space or wasted time.

Surprising discoveries
But just beneath the cravings were some surprising discoveries that have implications for leaders.Soon after I stopped multitasking, I noticed more joy in my work.

We don’t talk much about joy and work these days, but in giving my undivided attention to one thing, no matter how small or insignificant, I found a lot more pleasure and satisfaction in each task. There was a noticeable absence of stress, and even mundane and never-enjoyable tasks like expense accounting became more tolerable.

As I focused on each task, I began to become aware of the delusion wrought by multitasking: Being busy getting stuff done makes us think we are getting the right stuff done, but in reality we may be busy getting the wrong things done. In the middle of participating in a regular conference call without multitasking, I realized that spending 90 minutes on this call every month was the wrong thing for me and my business. Multitasking had shielded me from recognizing what was right for me.

As I continued to mono-task, I became more selective about what tasks I gave my attention to. Frankly, much of what I was doing is not important to what really matters.

Here’s something else. As I continued mono-tasking, I found more creativity. Instead of only thinking about getting something done, I found myself coming up with new approaches and solutions. I also found myself thinking more about how today’s tasks affect tomorrow — instead of just reacting, I found time to reflect more creatively on the future. Instead of ending my days fatigued, I found a surprising new level of energy.

At the end of the day, multitasking may be the friend of management but the enemy of leadership. If leadership, as Peter Drucker proclaimed, is not about getting things done but ensuring the right things get done, then filling our time with just doing may be fine for managing the status quo, but it may be killing our leadership.

Responsible leadership is about inspiring people toward a beneficial destination. Such leadership demands that we have time to reflect on where we are going. It demands that we have time for listening, imagining the future and telling good stories — none of which can be done while multitasking.

John Becknell, PhD, is a partner in the consulting firm SafeTech Solutions, LLP. John has been involved in emergency services for 40 years and writes and researches in the areas of leadership, culture, community and psychological wellbeing. He leads workshops, retreats and training programs for EMS, law enforcement and the fire service in living well, peer support and transforming the first responder experience into a path of growth, satisfaction and meaning. He is the author of Medic Life and numerous articles. John’s Masters and Doctoral degrees are in psychology with an emphasis on community psychology. Contact John at john@safetechsolutions.us

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