The other day during my three and a half mile walk I came across this sight.
First let me share with you what a wonderful walk this is!
It’s pretty much a straight road, partially side-walked, with a couple of slight inclines. At the typical halfway point – time available determines the length and time of the walk – there’s a wide open view of L.I. Sound. On clear days there’s a lengthy view of the North Shore of L.I.
Numerous cars stop on the road at this point to check out the view.
There’s No Parking or Standing according to the street signs on either side of the road.
This green SUV was parked with the driver facing the view of the Sound. He was holding a hard cover book with his left hand and it was propped up in his lap. Clearly reading his book, however, in his right hand, positioned next to the book he was reading, was his cell phone. The device was placed so he would be able to see it and immediately see any new messages, calls, notifications or whatever.
During the five to ten seconds I saw this, between walking by and turning around and walking by again, he glanced up at L.I. Sound looked at his phone and went back to his book at least twice. The windows were closed to the SUV so I don’t know if there was any music on as well or not.
Really didn’t give it much thought until a few minutes into my returning walk.
How many things can you do at the same time?
There was a time, not long ago, and for some people even now that multi-tasking and doing many, many, many things at once was a badge of honor. It was something to be proud of.
Seriously, I should know, as for years that was how you would describe me – even better said – it was how I would describe me!
The thinking may be framed a bit differently today.
How many things can you do, to the best of your abilities, with your full attention, at the same time?
One is an okay answer.
For many people they take one thing on, tackle it, complete it or at least their contribution to it and then they move on to the next one.
This is how they are most effectively operating.
For some other people the number of items they may take on is a higher number.
The questions for them to ask themselves are:
- am I giving each of these items the best of my abilities?
- do each of these items have my full attention?
Where do you stand in this self-review?
Take a moment and ask yourself these the two questions.
Don’t think this is only about how you work.
It’s about your family – your life.
Mitch Tublin is an entrepreneur and founder of Wenkroy International LLC, a boutique consulting company with a main focus of adding value to people. Through speaking, training and coaching clarity is achieved and distractions are reduced. People now focus on what matters most. My passion is to take people to the next level in their life and in their career and business.
