Case study. Cliff was one of the busiest people in the office. He always had at least three things going on. To make the most of his time, he did two or more things at once, edited a document on-screen while he was on a conference call, filed papers while he talked to one of his direct reports. He just could never get ahead. It seemed the harder he worked, the more behind he fell. He didn’t understand why his office mate, Shauna, always seemed to be so on top of things. She only ever worked on one thing at a time. She let her calls roll to voicemail and only checked her email four times a day. Cliff didn’t understand how she could possibly get everything done that she did. She also seemed so much less harried than he did. She even had time to take a little break a couple times a day to walk around and get a cup of tea. He asked her what her secret was. “I only do one thing at a time,” she says. “This way, my full attention is on one thing, and then I can move onto another later.” She told him to try it for one week. He scoffed but agreed since he was so stressed. To his amazement, Cliff found that tasks took less time than he thought they would, and he was able to work much more efficiently when he focused on one thing at a time.
