Time to clear the air
Multitasking is necessary. The fact that computers running UNIX or LINUX are masters of multitasking is a good thing. Your administrative assistant better be almost as good!
Bad Multitasking
When goals go unmet (or are delayed beyond promised due dates), the first place I look to place blame is at the feet of multitasking. Bad multitasking. Then, I start preaching "balance" as a way to help put the wheels back on... but I digress.
Just as money is not the root of evil (the love of money is), splitting one's precious time between tasks is in and of itself, not bad. It is easy to forget to say that little three letter word (the word 'bad'), and therefore, send the wrong message.
Unless you just tuned in, you are aware that at WWW.THROUGHPUT.US (TPU) we sell and implement business strategies as well as project management solutions. Until Tony Rizzo of the Product Development Institute (PDI) helped CCPM (Critical Chain Project Management) evolve into Total Matrix Planning (TMX), I just could not get excited about CCPM.
But the times, they are a changin'
Towards a more robust definition of "bad multitasking", allow me this statement:
Bad Multitasking is the act of dropping a primary function or activity for any length of time, in order to take up another task, simply to show that progress is being made on more than one project.
Allow me to clarify. Look at the chart above. Note that task "A" should take just 9 hours to complete. All things being equal. Which they are not. After 18 hours have elapsed in the chart, twice the time required to complete task "A", the activity is still not complete.
This chart simply defines "multitasking" — not "bad multitasking."
The results on the chart on neither good or bad. Just fact.
Without a mission statement, like making money, these isolated facts have no bearing on our business. Remember too that a lot of multitasking is required. Necessary. Like your company's receptionist. Do you really want him to finishing typing that nine page report before he answers the phone?
I didn't think so.
Consider your CFO (Chief Finance Officer). There may be a thousand or more decisions the CEO must make at the beginning of a new month, or the new year. Important stuff. Life altering actions might be required. However, until the financial statements from the last month (quarter and/or year) are completed and reviewed by the CFO, it would make sense to delay one or more of those decisions.
So, do you want your CFO multitasking, when her task "A" is finalize the year-end financials?
I did not think so.
That, is an example of bad tasking.
Now, add one more thought: the critical chain of events in a project.
When your CFO has a task on the critical chain, do you want her to multitask it with non-critical chain tasks?
-ski
Jeff 'SKI' Kinsey, Jonah
ski@throughput.us
(330) 432-3533
Definition :: Bad Multitasking
