Multitasking versus Unitasking

My audience for training programs consists of the twenty-somethings, the Millennial set of new hires flooding the inside sales organizations. I like training this group. They are quick, they are not afraid to try something, and they are not afraid of trying try everything all at once.

In the first few minutes of my training program — after we go through introductions and the course overview — I slap on the rules: No texting or laptops during the session. I am generous with breaks, but I have a stiff penalty if you don’t come back from break on time. Why? Because they have enough distractions at work — why create more when they are trying to learn?

My content is always fresh, relevant, and timely. The first hour is dedicated to Time Management, and the primary message is about the importance of maintaining a  High Tool IQ if you want to be successful in inside sales. I talk about the importance of tools — sales productivity tools and social tools.

Before I know it, I notice that a few people have taken their smart phones off the table and have their heads buried on their lap . . . texting away.

The Device Backlash is happening in full force. More devices and more tools increase the distraction level. And when you consider that 60% of workplace distractions come from email and social networking, and 14% of workers say they will tune out a meeting to tweet or update their status on a social network, this is serious.

The need to be “ON” all the time is a reality. We laughed a few years ago while reading the Geoff Sarkin Is Using Twitter article — where this guys tweets his entire wedding reception, receiving line, and wedding night –  it’s not so funny any more. The need to engage and be constantly “ON” is a reality.

In the The Rewired Resolution whitepaper, the author Camille Preston, PhD writes about being overwired which means overtaxing our brains and bodies by multitasking and multithinking and never being present. She found that for every $100K employee, companies are finding that $46K of productivity and quality of work is being compromised by that employee.

Unitasking means focusing on one thing at a time whether you are writing, reading, speaking, listening, walking. It is the key to being mindful in 2012.