Have you felt like doing multiple things but having a little impact on your journey? Having a multiple-purpose role loses effectiveness and focus in our tasks; even so, still getting trending at work, home, and school. Different articles talk about the crisis our brain suffers while switching between multiple tasks, losing the sense of detail, and so when switching between different roles losing objectivity.
Why are we encouraging a nonhealthy skill? Companies appeal to the term “Multitasking” as a clever capability that we, as multidimensional beings, can perform multiple things allowing the increment in quantity and speed of results, setting aside its impact on products and life quality.
Competitivity resides mainly in business, but it arises at home. We structure our family’s dynamic based on how we live and what would improve our living situation, which we then replicate in other environments, becoming a vicious cycle.
Companies have difficult times making sustainable plans. When the main focus is on matching the financial numbers, getting rid of resources is a sad but effective strategy. But those resources are not boards and tables; they are human beings.
When companies are conscious of this impact, they plan recognitions and retroactive incentives to compensate for that +100% of people’s life. When they don’t, they appeal to a sense of voluntary sacrifice and commitment for the community we all have, and in worst scenarios, to a sense of instability and fear.
As Robert J Woodbury mention in his book “Time Management for Leaders,” Companies have the same foundations that society has and the same values as the families from it. So makes sense that we adopt and adapt rules from work at home and vice versa. And it also makes sense that we attempt to satisfy our sense of belonging and acceptance by taking the challenge of carrying with that extra effort for the common good.
It is partly because of self-ambition and the need to remain in the competitive environments where we perform that we get this cadence of life at whatever cost. But even when we are multidimensional beings by nature, we may not know how to build, strengthen and manage this multifaceted quality. We must remain conscious and cautious with the rhythm of life we are getting, the consequences we are having, and how we handle them.
You can read the school prerequisites and the job positions. The world demands overqualified people to be able to perform diverse activities covering, most of the time, multiple role responsibilities.
We know for a fact that working as a team requires the ability to collaborate, to “switch hats” with our partners to help and cover them whenever needed. This does not necessarily mean we are as experts as they are, and much less could we replace them, at least not with the same level of detail and quality in a short time. I even encourage my team members to get a “T shape” profile to improve their skills and agile team dynamics, not to replace no one but for them to amplify and enable diversified criteria solutions when the team requires them. But not all companies have the financial numbers and morality to think this way. Why would they pay two when one could do both things?
This is a tricky topic. It depends on the side of the road you are. There is a thin line between increasing responsibilities due to the level of expertise, considering a balanced workload rather than an optimization of resources plan that aims to get a bit more at the same price. Have you heard of the phrase “giving the 110%”? How often do you think people have reciprocity for that +10% of their lives?
Don’t get me wrong with the idea of not exploiting all your potential for a project that deserves it, nor of limiting the growth opportunities of anyone. We must explore, diversify our abilities, and challenge ourselves at any time or age. But it must be balanced. And it does not mean only in various topics but in results-oriented. This unevenness can turn a multiskill set into a curse.
You can relate to this even if you do not have kids. We are constantly thinking about what the next generation should do to keep up the pace of life as it is nowadays. You could even find yourself designing ahead your kids’ growth plan and performance strategy from the early years of their lives? Because it is never too soon to build a competitive skillset. But are we considering all edges?
Let’s talk about plants for a minute or two. When we get a seed, we reach for a good place to plant, with enough space to grow its body and roots. It depends on the seed, but they all require constant care of their needs, like light, space, water, fertilizers, etc. My grandma used to even talk to them. “We need to listen to what they need and give them exactly that; we are providers but not owners of their growth.”
In kids, as in plants, it is not what we think they need but what their request is about. It is not all about more water or less sun, as it is neither only about more languages, new processes, and trending tools, but feelings, behaviors, and criteria. Our comfy reaction is to interpret their needs as a mirror would tell of our needs, and we end up giving supplements, but it is in our actions where they get or not what they need.
If we let any plant grow its body more than its roots, it will eventually lose stability. If it only receives sunlight from one side, it will dry or redirect to the other. Do you relate? Kids are much similar to plants, and our souls are much alike to children; they all require constant and diversified care.
It is not getting more straightforward when we think of ourselves as multidimensional beings, but we should because we are. Our inner kid or our soul and our adult demand different and differently. We need to fill up our agenda wisely, considering our need for self-caring (having a happy&healthy life) and our self-ambition (having an impressive resume).
Any goal we set lessens its effectiveness when we only get it for the title but cannot apply, see results and improve. It also happens when we overload our time but don’t get the sense of achieving something valuable, and it becomes only forced and exhausting. It is our soul claiming for its transcendental part that is missing.
Becoming a “multitasking” skilled person requires multidimensional skills, not only the knowledge of the multiple topics, the tools, or the processes themselves but the ability to survive this constant switching between all of them and also be able to remain objective and in control with ourselves.
I personally do not consider multitasking as a practical skill on its own. Still, it is a trending request, and even if we cannot fight against such irrational global demands like that, we can certainly learn how to make it valuable and manageable.
Take note of this, Multitasking is not an actual capability on its own; it requires an assertive use of our multidimensional abilities, but we need to develop such capabilities. Being Multidimensional beings doesn’t mean we were born with a user manual and a pre-configured skills set. It is not a genre exclusivity but a learned and trained capacity. Multidimensional abilities can become a curse if we give control to external factors like our demanding jobs or parents. But it also becomes a superpower if we listen to our inner demands and master our output reactions.
-References
A.Viggiano, 2022/07, The pilot of your life
Agile, Leadership, and Growth Coaching 