This happens to me all the time. I try to do SO many things at once none of them get done at all. Sure there are some people who talk on the phone, send an email, write a report and eat lunch all at the same time, but that doesn't make them more efficient. On the contrary, if you're the person on the other line of the phone with that multitasking maven, you'll probably notice that you don't have their full attention. The email being sent by the diligent do-gooder may be filled with typos, or they'd have to go back over it again to make sure it wasn't, which pretty much cancels out the time saved multitasking in the first place.

It is almost counterintuitive, but the best way to get things done is to do them thoroughly one at a time, without any interuptions. If you try to do two things at once, at best you'll end doing both quickly, but probably not very well. Miki Saxon's blog, which always has great information and insight, gave me some clues about how this works. Read her blog by clicking here.