One Thing at a Time

The other day, I was checking out at a supermarket and the cashier was talking to somebody next to them who was stocking a shelf. That might explain why when I handed them a $20 bill, they weren’t really paying attention, and shoved a credit card machine towards me, until they realized I wasn’t holding a credit card.

They then took the $20 bill, but instead of making change, they kind of held on to it while they were talking to the other person still, and then handed it right back to me.

It’s a great example of how multitasking doesn’t work for any of the tasks that are being multi-tasked.

And if you find yourself trying to get a lot done and multitasking isn’t working for you, consider doing two things.

Number one is slow down. The slowing down gives you the ability to do the second thing, which is to focus on one thing at a time. Focus makes us so much more effective in so many areas of life, and I think you’ll find if you do those two things, that you’ll find that doing one thing at a time makes you far more productive.