I recently read an article by novelist Walter Kirn telling of his near death experience as he was driving late one snowy night on a two-lane highway in Wyoming. He was on his way to see his girlfriend in Colorado when his phone chirped indicating that a new picture had been sent to him, from her. Fumbling for his phone, he swerved off the pavement, sailed over a steep embankment and headed toward a barbed-wire fence, sagebrush and rocks.

He escaped death, stopped the car, turned it around, made it back to the highway and proceeded south as a much slower rate.

His multitasking of driving and using his cellphone was a near disaster. Multitasking in the office is not much different. Most driven individuals think they are accomplishing more by multitasking. That may be true if they have the computer printing and they are deleting e-mails while listening to a long-winded friend on the phone.

In a multitasking mode, not much quality will be produced and relationships may be destroyed. How important do you feel when you ask an question and the person who has the answer keeps their eyes glued to the computer and their fingers speeding over the key pad as they stumble to answer you while their mind is flitting from their task at hand to you and back to their task?

It takes concentrated focus to solve problems, write intelligent papers, and have a solution oriented conversation.

The next time you want real results, don’t try to multitask — especially if you are driving on snowy roads and your cell phone is buried under stuff on the passenger seat.

Use laser focus to get your mind into peak mode functioning and you’ll achieve impressive results in your work hours.

For additional information on competence and productivity, go to https://karlabrandau.com/ and be sure to read the former posts.