When Multi-Tasking has become Task-Overload

Today was my first chance to sleep in for quite some time. And it will likely be my last for the foreseeable future. I have a lot of things on my proverbial plate.

I leave in three days for a week long leadership program (you know, the kind that digs into all your emotional “stuff” with 17 other leaders doing the same) immediately followed by an 18 hour flight to Dubai to teach a class (and a few days of fun before I head home). Before I can leave, I have to go to a co-worker’s wedding, help a friend move, pay the bills, send a Father’s Day gift, and set up the info for my house sitters on the care & feeding of my pets/plants. Wow…I got a little tired just typing that list!

But this morning, before realizing how tired I was just thinking about all I have to do, I was on a roll! I got up early (well…early for me!), checked my e-mail, fed the cats, picked up a little around the house, and then hit the kitchen to make breakfast. My mind was already racing with all I needed to get done today before my friend picks me up for the wedding we’re going to this afternoon.

I am trying to use up the last bit of food in my fridge before abandoning ship for 2.5 weeks. For me, that means a lot of omelets & fruit smoothies to use up my produce. So when I hit the kitchen, the slicing & dicing began immediately!

Pepper…CHOPPED!

Spinach…SAUTEED!

Eggs…WHIPPED!

Fruit…SLICED & IN THE BLENDER!

I threw my veggies in the pan to get the omelet going. Then I plugged in the blender and hit the button. Nothing happened.

“Oh for God’s sake,” I thought, cursing the blender under my breath. “You’re going to choose TODAY to stop working? No…I won’t accept it!”

I unplugged the blender and tried a different outlet. Just as I was about to hit the button again to see if the new outlet would solve my problem, I realized the “the button” I had been pushing was indeed the biggest button on the console. It was also the OFF button. Huh.

I pushed the biggest button and the darn thing didn't work.
Oh...that's because the biggest button is the OFF button!

I stopped and chuckled at myself. As I had been setting up the blender my thoughts were about an email someone had not bothered to answer. I was going through a whole list of reasons why THAT person was wrong. Broken. Mean. Unacceptable in her behavior. I had a whole list of things flying through my head that made me right and her wrong.

But then I thought for a second, “Maybe I’ve been pushing her “OFF” button.

Could it be that I was actually the one who was unacceptable & wrong? That my message didn’t land well with her because of the way it was stated? Was I thinking about all the things I could change about her to get the results I wanted when really all I needed to do was hit the right button?

Maybe I’d multi-tasked myself into sending the wrong message!

Women are incredible multi-taskers. Studies & articles out there discuss this as a strong point in how women lead and I have to agree…I use the heck out of that skill!! But sometimes we go from multi-tasking to task-overload without even knowing we’ve gone around the bend!

One day, task #5 might push you over the edge. Other days, you’re good until task #10! Only you know how much you can handle. But when you begin yelling at the blender because the OFF button won’t puree your pineapple chunks…that’s a pretty good sign you’ve taken on one task too many for that day!

And when your task involves communicating with another person, make sure you’re communicating in a way that’s productive for BOTH of you. Ask yourself, “Am I hitting this person’s OFF button? How can I change what I’m saying to get the results I want…because what I’m doing now is NOT working!”

Lesson:

My blender gave me a double whammy in the lesson department today.

1. Know what you can take on in a given day. Allow yourself to say no to tasks that will slow you down and/or make you less efficient in the primary tasks on your list that day. Because the truth of the matter is you might say yes to taking them on…but you’ll be in “OFF-button” mode by the time you get to them. And when that happens both you AND the task suffer !
2. If you’re communicating with someone and nothing is happening…you may be hitting his/her OFF button! Don’t keep trying to change that person (like I did by plugging the blender into a new outlet). Change YOUR behavior! Pick a different button & see how that works!

I’d also like to thank my blender for an outstanding smoothie. Just what I needed after learning all those lessons!  What about you? 

• What are your personal signals you’ve gone from multi-tasking to task overload? 
• Who’s OFF button have you been pushing? 
• How can you change the way YOU communicate rather than plugging that person into a new outlet?