So a lot of the sites I've visited list out tips for better time management. And while there is a fair amount of variation depending on your goals, they do all run in basically a parallel path. With perhaps the exception of multi-tasking.
Some sites claim that multi-tasking 'dilutes' your focus on both task, making the time you spend on the two of them that much more drawn out and ineffective. Other sites claim that the best way to get the most out of the day is to not limit yourself to just one task when two are possible.
Now, I don't want to open up a total can of worms here, but there's also the viewpoint that it might be a gender thing. I'm not sure that I agree, but I have heard from many many MANY sources that 'Oh, I can't multi-task, I'm a guy...I'm focused,' or 'How can you just sit there and not be doing something else? That goes against the laws of motherhood!' or etc. etc... But maybe this is a part of the discussion best left for some other blog...
There definitely is something to be said for both multi-tasking and not. If you don't multi-task, you are concentrating your effort on one thing and one thing only. No distractions, no apologies, no excuses, you're on top of that one thing. On the other hand, if you're mind is wandering while you're doing a task, could you fill that wandering with another task? Like watching TV and folding laundry, or walking to the bus-stop and reading a book (um, this may not be advised if you're particularly engrossed. There's cars out there, people...), or playing Halo while you're listening to the last tape of your biology lecture? (Actually, a friend of mine swears by this. I don't quite get it, but to each his own.)
I say I'll try anything once.
(Halo, anyone?)
I find it very difficult to multi-task. I also think that if a task is more interesting than the other you will tend to concentrate more on the interesting task. In my case, I always find that my math homework distracts me from my history homework.
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