The Multi-Tasking Myth
I coach baseball. A couple of seasons ago, while coaching the spring season of my son’s elite youth baseball team, I was also carrying a load of 12 hours (6 courses) in my Master’s degree program. In addition, I was running my wealth management practice and pastoring the small community church I had planted 12 years earlier. Needless to say, time was a little tight. One evening, while catching up on my reading assignments for school, and after a full day’s work at the office, my wife asked me to drive her to the mall. I asked if I could wait in the car while she shopped. She said, “Sure.” I asked how long she’d be, and she said, “Maybe 20-30 minutes.” I thought to myself, “I could get a whole chapter of reading done in that time,” then turned to her and said, “You bet. Let’s go. I’ll read in the car while I’m waiting for you. Take your time.” This small slice of daily life offers two useful instructions.
First, I did not see my wife’s request as an interruption because I do not see my educational goals as in competition with my family goals. I want to earn this Master’s and then go on to a PhD. I also want to be an excellent husband and father. To do both, I merely need to be flexible and opportunistic. It is about perspective. Too often we settle for small goals or none at all because we don’t think we can “do it all.” We work, we go home, we go to sleep. Doing it all is for other people who have limitless supplies of energy and otherworldly self control. But, that is really just a perception that does not prove true. There is no such thing as multi-tasking, per se. Rather, there is only flexible and opportunistic tasking. This is the skill of moving easily from one objective to the other and back again without getting flustered or losing momentum. Take “interruptions” in stride, but keep moving forward. If one objective meets a temporary roadblock, then shift to another one. Don’t fall apart or fall off the wagon, just keep making progress. You will eventually get there. The longest journey begins with the first step. Keep taking deliberate steps, and you will reach your objective, no matter how many of them you have.
Because I am not yet married and have no children, previous employers have assumed that I have nothing to do outside of work. That is not true. As a Christian, I have been challenged to feed the hungry, care for those who are sick and in need, and visit orphans and widows. As a single woman with no children, these are my priorities. I take them every bit as seriously as others take their marriages and familial responsibilities. Though it is a hefty calling, the better I manage my time and relationships, the more effectively I can fulfill my responsibilities. This will always be true inside the office and throughout our personal lives.
“This is the skill of moving easily from one objective to the other and back again without getting flustered or losing momentum.” This is very profound to me. Aptly so, since it is something I need to work on. Too often, I have prided myself in being able to multi-task, only to get frustrated with results that do not come quickly enough. Perhaps, I have not been flexible and opportunistic enough.