Multi-switching is the concept of balancing two or more projects at one time. Some call it multi-tasking but since it’s mentally impossible to multi-task (go ahead work through two things in your mind at a time – say what you’re having for dinner and your weekend plans), the best we can hope for is to multi-switch. That is, work on one project for a while with our full concentration and then move to another project to do the same thing.
I’ve been there most of this week thanks to a couple projects at work. They’re interesting projects and I’m currently able to do them in my pajamas but thanks to their relative difference (one is research and development while the other one is some industry analysis) my mind feels like a stick shift that’s had its gears grinded too many times. I find it takes around 10-15 minutes to re-orient myself to a new task. My poor performance in a call last week showed that less than 10 minutes isn’t good.
So, how’s that mind game going? Dinner vs weekend plans … let me guess, your mind plows through one without doing much on the other until you literally switch your focus. I’m not a genius – I’ve just read Getting Things Done.
