Time Management In An Instant

27Overcome Multitasking Madness

On an average day you probably e-mail off a memo to co-workers, surf the Net for the latest and greatest technology, fill out sales reports, and sit in on several conference calls—usually all at the same time. A recent report from the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of London found that, when workers are constantly juggling e-mails, phone calls, and text messages, their IQ falls 10 points. Another study by Rubinstein, Meyer, and Evans found that, when people switched back and forth between tasks, there was a substantial loss of efficiency and accuracy, in some cases up to as much as 50 percent.

In today’s non-stop work environment—courtesy of PDAs, e-mail, instant messaging, and so forth—the five projects ...