Spotlight on Leadership: The Multitasking Mirage

The Leadership Toolkit is designed to provide you with tools to enhance the leadership qualities you already possess, while cultivating new strengths through education and training. Included on this website are job aids, video/audio podcasts, and suggested readings.  These resources will assist your efforts in being a better manager and leader and are available whenever you need them.

This month’s featured podcast: The Multitasking Mirage

Are you doing more than one thing right now? Are you reading this article while also checking your email, texting a colleague, surfing the web on your phone, working on a report or playing a computer game? Do you pride yourself on being “a great multitasker?”

Be warned.  A growing body of research shows that multitasking actually decreases productivity, impairs your cognitive ability, increases your stress and diminishes your creativity. All of these things make you less effective and reduce you to a fraction of the professional you are capable of being.

In this podcast, Scott Blades, M.Ed., assistant director of UF Training & Organizational Development, explores multitasking and explains what happens when attempting to do it.  Hear what the research says about the dangers of multitasking and discover some more effective strategies for tackling your lengthy to-do list.

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